For want of a Ribbon: The 25th World Tournament
by Bob-dude17
Summary: The year is Age 774, the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament will soon take place, and our heroes (as in canon) plan to participate. However, Buu and everything relating to him never existed, with this and other details from the past changed, how will this tournament play out?
1. Prologue: Fall of Red, Rise of Black

For want of a Ribbon: The 25th World Tournament

By Bob-Dude17

Prologue: Fall of Commander Red, Rise of Commander Black

There are many possibilities in this world, both theoretical and actual. So long as there have been butterflies being killed or left alone, there have been possibilities, and more importantly, changes.

In most universes a Saiyan by the adoptive name of Son Goku went on to become a powerful fighter and force for good, saving the world from members of his own race, tyrannical space lizards, killer androids, biological chimeras, and a long dormant slayer of the gods themselves.

And in this universe where our story is set, one of many throughout the multiverse, Goku went forth to take care of the Red Ribbon Army once and for all. But unlike in a certain other universe, something much different happened on May 12th in the year 750. Though, the full ripple effects of that day's events, however, were not felt until a good many years later...

DBZ

May 12th, Age 750 had not been a good day, the former Staff Officer Black thought as he looked about the rising smoke from the ruins that had just that morning been the Red Ribbon Army Headquarters. Not a good day at all.

First, there had been that monkey tailed boy who had came storming in and had wrecked the place up a good bit before the soldiers had overwhelmed him through a relentless onslaught of rocket launchers, sniper rifles, and hand guns. It had taken just about every bullet the Red Ribbon Army had at their disposal, but it was worth it when the boy finally went down in unconsciousness in the end, mumbling something about being hungry.

Either way, with the boy subdued and awaiting execution for causing as much trouble as he had for the Red Ribbon Army, Black thought that might have been the end of their problems. That with that boy's head soon to be lopped off, that the Red Ribbon Army might then be on its way to properly conquering the world as was Commander Red's dream.

Ha! Turns out the damn brat had friends, friends who had just ever so conveniently been on their way to help that wretched monkey boy out.

One was the famed 'Wolf Bandit' Yamcha, who smacked down solder after solder with some savage fist based attack. Another was the infamous criminal Lunch, who mowed down solders as she wielded dual machine guns, the grin of a demon spread wide across her face.

One of them was even the legendary martial artist Master Roshi no less! No detail needed to be gone into how HE dealt with the soldiers. Needless to say, there was nothing the men could have done against that combined force of freaks, and Black couldn't blame those that made a run for it while the getting was still good.

Then, as if to top it all off, Ex-Commander Red had revealed in a moment of frustration his true motivation for the formation of the Red Ribbon Army, for wasting all the manpower and money and years spent hunting for the Dragon Balls in the first place.

To make himself taller.

That had been the proverbial straw for Black, as the reality of the Red Ribbon Army's whole existence hit him, all of the money wasted and loss of life, having been done just because his boss wanted a change in height? When he had someone like Gero who could have just MADE him as tall as he wanted to be?

It was such a comically stupid motivation that Black did the only rational thing a man in his position could be expected to do given the absurdity of the situation. He shot his former commander in the head at point blank range.

Having done the dirty deed and, truth be told, feeling as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, Black had then left the dragon balls out in the open and taken the elevator up to the top floor. Then he waited in a corner until the one known as Son Goku and his friends found them, took the two damned orbs, and left the compound to go celebrating their hard earned victory.

An act of a coward? Maybe. Black thought his action more of that of the act of a sane man in what was now clearly an insane world.

Now the ever sane, ever-rational Ex-Staff Officer Black was the only one left. Left in what just that morning had been the headquarters of the most powerful army in the whole world. As Black stared out at the compound below him, the low orange warmth light of the late twilight sun warming his baldhead as he thought long and hard about what he would do with his future.

He still had his capsulized mecha suit in his breast pocket, so that was something if nothing else. But that still didn't leave him much of anything to work with in truth.

Fuel for the damn thing was a big issue for starters, to say nothing of repairs to keep it running. It was like being stuck in the wild with a rocket launcher when what you really needed was a bow and some arrows. Sure, it was better than nothing, but given his current situation it was overkill. Like using a tank or monster truck to go out driving on the highway.

But what he had was what he had, even if it wasn't all that much. Black then changed thoughts to just what in the hell he was going to do with himself now; he could always worry about his capsule battle suit later. He could he try going straight, get away from everything illegal when he made his way back to the nearest city.

Settle down and become the yes man for some big company like Capsule Corp, or if he got truly desperate, Pod Corp. (though the mere thought of working for that bargain bin knock off of a corporation made Black physically shiver). Suddenly Black frowned at the thought of himself in old age, still working for someone like Red in personality if not appearance.

"No." A dry, cracked whisper escaped his thick lips at that moment as he curled his large hands into fists and tightened them. "Never again." He had had enough of taking orders from someone else to last a life time.

Maybe it was seeing the entire Red Ribbon Army crumble around him, maybe it was the fact that he had just resigned in a way most salary men WISHED they could do to their bosses, but something about wanting to conquer the world still wouldn't leave Black alone.

It was odd when he thought about it, until he had met Commander Red all those years ago, he had never given world domination a serious thought before. But now the bug of the idea had wormed its way into his brain and it wouldn't leave him alone. Just then Black remembered a quote he had read about a woman who had once climbed Mount Frappee.

Why had she done it, when the mountain was infamous for turning into a deadly blizzard in the presence of those of the female gender? Because it's there, the woman climber had replied.

Why take over the world? Because it's there. Because I can, and because I damn well want to. It wasn't the deepest or most original motivations, true, but there was just something about the simplicity of it all that Black found appealing.

King Black the First, now THAT had a ring to it. Black smiled at the thought of him with a crown on his head. So, he now knew what he was going to do. Question was, who was going to help him do it? Black's frown only deepened as he mentally checked off all of the personnel of the army.

Commander Violet had only been in it for the money (as her heist of most of Red Ribbon's stored wealth had showed), Tao hadn't come back and was most likely dead, same as General Blue and all the rest of the generals no doubt (though he had never heard word from Silver or White, Black didn't want to get his hopes up), and with the grunt men that were either dead or fled he had no backbone of an army to work with or command.

Granted there was still Gero, though Kami knew what his current location was. But the idea of working with a scientist as clearly unstable as him made Black's stomach churn at just the mere thought. The simple truth of the matter was that Black just flat out DISLIKED and distrusted the doctor, whose loyalty to Red Ribbon bordered on the fanatically insane.

Black, by the simple fact that he had not hesitated in shooting the late Red when the truth of the Army's origins had been brought to light, was far more reasonable and grounded in reality thank you very much. Besides, there was no telling how someone as unhinged as Gero would react to the truth, either about Black shooting Red, or the fact that the Red Ribbon's whole reason for being was just to make a short man taller.

It would no doubt be a kindness (to himself if nothing else, and given what had happened today Black needed every bit of kindness he could get) if Black made the mad fool of a scientist think that all of Red Ribbon had been destroyed today when the old goat finally got word of its destruction from his base in the northern mountains. As for issues of money…

There were a few scraps of wealth that that traitorous purple haired woman hadn't managed to run off with, and while it wasn't much of a nest egg to start the funding necessary for something like a new Red Ribbon Army, Black supposed it was better than absolutely nothing.

After all, if that fool Red had managed to build up something as impressive as Red Ribbon, what was there to stop Black from doing the same?

As for spare men, when one added in the late Commander Red's stupid tendency for killing his men for a very broad and just outright petty definition of 'failure', Black decided that his army would focus less on manpower and more on the gathering of intelligence. Lack of Intel on this Goku boy, that was what had done Red and his army in at the end, that and constant underestimation and overestimation on the now late Red's part. Black's army would be different. Better. He'd make sure of it.

"Regardless of Gero or my funding issues, I will rebuild. Not here though, the compound is a wreck and even if I was able to repair and restaff it, I'd just be inviting bad luck, and that's the last thing I need right now." Black said softly to himself as he stood up and looked back down at the ruined headquarters below him.

He knew it was foolish, talking to himself with not a soul around to hear him but the echoing of his own voice. At the same time, he was desperate to break the haunting silence by this point, as the sun set into the sky, bathing his now sullen sitting frame (one could only stand and stare for so long) in its orange glow. Besides, there was only so much thinking to himself that he could do before he went mad from lack of another voice. So his voice would have to do for now.

"Yes, I WILL rebuild an army of my own to conquer the world. It will take a while, a long while. But I WILL do it, by Kami, and I swear to you Son Goku and friends:; you will pay for what you did here today."

All of this, after all, was the fault of that damned monkey boy and his friends when you got right down to it. He could have been the ruler of the earth by now if not for that damn lot barging in like they had.

Black balled his hands tightly as he turned away from the window, and thus, the ruined compound that for years had been home to the strongest army in the world.

"The whole lot of you will rue the day that you messed with Commander Black's Black Ribbon Army, I promise you that right now. Son Goku and friends, you WILL pay for what you have done here today."

* * *

So, as one famed playwright once put it, the scene (of sorts) has been set. This is the nail, or in this case ribbon if you will, where my story and the Dragon ball canon split. Sure, I could have gone for obvious ones like Radizu surviving, Piccolo staying evil, Freeza and Cell becoming good guys, ect but all of that's been done by people FAR more talented and skilled than my lone self. So I went with the unorthodox idea and thus this little rough gem was born.

Now another thing I should note (this is where that sort of from before comes into play) is that there's no Majin Buu or evil wizards or Goku coming back to life in this fic. Not that I hate the Buu arc mind you, I just don't want to rehash canon for the sake of rehashing canon.

2. As my beta reader Ness Frost would attest to, I am human and horrible at self editing, so many thanks go to both him and my good friend Doctor Black for helping me in getting this tale down on digital paper.

3. This story will be updating on a weekly weekly bases on every Friday (though the Thanksgiving holiday may prove difficult, so I might release a chapter earlier before then) as the story is completed and finished (to say nothing of edited, thanks again Ness Frost!), so this is 'in process', in the sense that just have to upload all the chapters.

4. Any and all author notes will be at the END/bottom of chapters/computer scenes as I feel it allows the reader to jump into the chapter easier than read through a bunch of blah by the writer, that and author notes in the middle of the story are just distracting and unprofessional. (and yet American Vigor...)

5. I'll be using a blend of anime filler, the manga, and some video game stuff like the Legacy of Goku ll or Buu's fury, and the DS game Attack of the Sayians as my canon, partly just because I can and mostly because I thinks it adds to the world building. The same will be for attack names (which wont be bolded or anything like that as I find that distracting in DBZ fics myself). Most attacks will be in english, like Yamcha's Wolf Fang Fist attack if for no other reason then it rolls of my tongue better than the Japanese name does, but I'll be using the Japanese name for attacks such as the Special Beam Cannon or the rock paper scissors technique.

As for the character's themselves, I'm mostly aiming for trying to capture their Funianmation dub selves for the most part, as for better or worse it's Sean Schemmel's Goku that is the character to me, not (with all due respect) Mrs. Masako Nozawa. This is partly because I grew up, like many did in America, with the Funi english dub (with all its dubbing warts and blemishes), and partly because as an English speaking American, I generally prefer my animes in my own language, thank you very much.

7. While I've tried to do the character's justice and give them their due as best I can without playing favorites, I have made certain canon characters slightly more mature and/or willing to admit their personal flaws and the like (Goku, for example, because he was rescued by his friends from the Red Ribbon Army, came to appreciate them just a little more then he did in canon and because of so went out of his way to share techniques like the Kaio Ken).

DBZ

8. Lastly, I'll be answering comments/reviews but only if the comments have some depth to them. So please, none of the atypical 'UPDATE SOOOOOOON PLEASE' or 'This is really interesting...please update soon!'* garbage.


	2. Chapter 1: Enter the Dragon Trio

Chapter 1: Enter the Dragon Trio

It was a normal day at Kame House in the year Age 774, which meant that as per usual, the sun was shining its warm rays on the small lone island. Meanwhile, the ocean's waves were gently lapping against the island's shore, and a soft, cooling breeze was wafting its way through the three palm trees that rested near the lone pink framed, red roofed home that was the centerpiece of the small tropical atoll.

Above the trees, as a light gust of wind blew through the miniature slice of tropical paradise, was the creaking sound of Kame House's rooster-shaped weather vane as it moved from north to northwest.

And on this day, sitting outside behind the house with her legs crossed in the Lotus pose, was a small girl. Her eyes were closed shut as her mind was deep in meditation.

Her outfit consisted of dark blue training shoes, an orange tank top with a matching colored pair of pants, a black cloth belt wrapped around her small waist, and two matching blue wrist bands. Resting on her back was a large dark blue colored turtle shell that dwarfed her small body by a comical amount.

The last noticeable thing about the girl's uniform was a large circle with the kanji for turtle printed on the back, with a small patch that lay on the front side of her outfit near her heart that shared the same kanji.

The gust of wind blew a few strands of blond hair and the little girl opened her eyes, suddenly ceasing her meditation. Like her father, her eyes lacked whitened irises, though in its place was a peach/pink hybrid that matched the rest of her body's skin tone flawlessly. Like her mother, the young girl's pupils were a nice shade of blue in place of her father's black. Turning her head, she looked up at the sky, and could see in the distance a small shape that was fast approaching the island.

More importantly, she could sense the being's ki, and thankfully knew the person that said massive power belonged to was a friend.

With that, the blond little girl uncrossed her legs, stood up, and stretched the back of her arms before moving on to her legs. After she had finished, she walked around to the front of the house and went inside, where her mother, her father, and her martial arts master were preoccupied.

Her mother was watching a dated sitcom from over 20 years ago, her knuckles rested on what looked like a very bored face while her father and her master were currently deep in concentration due to a game of Go Fish.

"I just thought that I would let everyone know Mr. Son Gohan will be here in approximately a minute and a half."

Her mother gave an indifferent grunt, her naturally narrowed eyes still glued to the TV screen. Both her father and master looked up from their card game, looks of momentary surprise soon replaced by joy, when they located Gohan's fast approaching energy signal.

"Man Roshi," her father said as he set his hand of cards on the table face down. "We must have been into our game something fierce to not notice Gohan of all people coming in like that."

The Turtle Hermit gave a sage nod of his baldhead, his snow-white long beard bobbing up and down as he did so.

"You're telling me…" After rubbing his beard in thought, the old man turned to his student's daughter. "Thank you for telling us Marron."

Marron, as she always did, smiled warmly at her master's praise.

DBZ

Moments later Gohan Son, the son of Goku and the one who had defeated the monstrous being known as Cell many years ago, touched down on the island in front of the Kame House, where all four of its residents were waiting for him.

"Hey Krillin!" Gohan said, grinning as he gave them a friendly wave.

"Hey buddy." Krillin did his best to hold back a snort. "You lose a bet or something?"

Gohan, though a pair of bulky black sunglasses that covered his eyes, gave the shorter man a confused look. "What do ya mean?"

"I mean ya look like you just came from a costume store that was going out of business."

"That, or you dropped out of clown collage." 18 added, a small sarcastic smile spreading to her thin lips as she said this.

Gohan was clearly flustered as he put up his hands in defense. "Hey, Bulma came up with this thing herself in order to protect my identity for the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament."

"Pity," 18 commented with a voice that was a blend of playful mockery and her normal monotone voice. "I can only hope that her brain hasn't faded as poorly as her sense of fashion has. After all, 17 and I still need someone to keep us in working order."

Krillin arched a black eyebrow up. "Why are you competing in the World Tournament for? Ever since that grease ball Hercule Satan won the last one, the whole thing's kinda gone downhill, hasn't it?"

And so, Gohan went and explained why exactly it was that he was competing in the 25th World Tournament, and why he was wearing the ridiculous getup he was wearing (outside of protecting his identity he apparently had plans on becoming a superhero of all things).

He also mentioned that a very handsome sum of Zenni would be awarded to the first five place winners. But the biggest news of all, no doubt, was the fact that his father was coming back from the afterlife for a full 24 hours.

THAT, Marron noticed, had put everyone in a good mood. Especially her father who was still grinning ear to ear along after Gohan had left Kame House.

"Man," Krillin said. "I still can't believe Goku's coming back to life for a whole day."

"Really now?" 18 remarked, her blue eyes looking playfully sarcastic. "After mentioning that fact for the 15th time since Gohan left, you STILL can't believe it?"

Krillin chuckled at his wife's comment. "Alright, alright, point taken. But can you blame me honey? I mean this is Goku we're talking about here after all!"

"True, true." Master Roshi said with another nod. "I'll be good to see the old boy again after all this time, as he's no doubt become even stronger after all these years in the afterlife."

"Just think Marron, you'll finally get to meet daddy's friend after all these years of hearing me and Master Roshi blather on and on about him. Isn't that exciting?"

Marron nodded, trying her best to look as enthused as she could about meeting a man she had never met before.

"Yes father… But-"

Krillin looked at Marron with a confused expression. "But?"

"But I was wondering… could I enter as well?"

"W-WHAT!?" Krillin nearly stumbled and fell down in shock face first. "Y-Y-You can't enter sweetie, you're only 7 years old!"

Marron's eyes narrowed as she gave her father a look of annoyance, and 18 couldn't help but smile inwardly in pride.

"So what, you were only 12 when you and Mr. Goku entered the 21st Tournament, weren't you daddy?"

"I-Well yea, but it was different back then! Everyone was a lot weaker back then and the standards weren't as insane as they are now! Besides, you'll be competing with Super Saiyans-"

"I can spar and keep up with mother pretty well, and she was able to keep up with them. And if I can keep up with her then I know I can wear down Chi and Bra and the rest if I try my hardest!"

Seeing the determined look on his daughter's face, Krillin turned to his wife and former master, his face blanched with drops of sweat that began to form from fear of the idea of his poor Marron going up against someone like Vegeta. The image was not a pretty one. "Help me out here guys!"

"If she wants to do this, then let her, I say."

"Roshi!"

The old hermit raised a hand, cutting Krillin's outrage short.

"Your daughter is a student of the Turtle School, and a fine one at that. She's easily far stronger than either you or Goku were when you were twice her age. AND need I remind you, she completed her training with twice the amount of weight that you two used and has been training constantly since then? If she wishes to prove herself in the tournament, well then far be it from us to keep her from her dream."

Krillin turned to 18.

"You know she has my stubbornness dear, she won't give up until you let her enter," the blond woman said with a small smirk.

Krillin looked back to Roshi, then back to his wife. He sighed.

"Alright Marron," Krillin said as he turned to face his daughter. "You win, you can-"

"OH THANK YOU DADDY! THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!"

"Marron… Can't… breathe."

Marron quickly detached herself at her father's strangled comment, her cheeks pinking slightly in rare embarrassment as she did.

Rubbing the back of his neck with one of his hands, Krillin looked at Marron with a serious expression, which she returned to him with equal intensity. "You are aware that your training will have to be stepped up quite a bit young lady-"

"Don't worry about that, Father," Marron said.

"I'm going to get help in preparing."

"Oh?" Master Roshi asked. "Who exactly did you have in mind?

"Well, I could find Mr. Shinhan or Mr. Yamcha, or I could go to Kami's Lookout and see if I can't convince Mr. Piccolo or Mr. Dende to give me some advanced training, or maybe I could even find Uncle 17 and see if he could help me out some..."

"Do you plan on keeping the turtle shell?" 18 asked while her daughter stood there in thought, her voice neither judging nor criticizing, simply curious.

Marron shook her head, her ponytail smacking back and forth as she did. "No. Bra's been working on a special weighted suit. She says it'll be like a wearable gravity chamber, and I'll be able to adjust it by command alone. Speaking of which, I was planning on going over to West City to see Bra and pick it up today."

"I see." Krillin could feel his shoulders slump a little. Why couldn't she have been the type of little girl who would just be happy to cheer her parents on in the tournament? "Well, good luck kiddo. See you on the day of the tournament I suppose. If you get lost or scared or-"

Marron smiled at him. "I won't daddy, you, mom, and Master Roshi have trained me too well for that."

Krillin felt his body relax at that, a surge of pride swelling from within his breast at his daughter's praise. "I know kiddo, still, you know where everyone's located if you do run into trouble right?"

Marron nodded with a self assured look on her face.

Now it was Krillin's turn to give a small smile. "Then get outta here you! And make sure you train extra hard, ya hear?"

Marron let out a small, childlike laugh and nodded one final time before shooting off in the air, leaving her parents and master behind her in a trail of an off white aura.

When he could no longer see his daughter on the blue horizon, Krillin let out a deep sigh as he folded his arms under his chest.

"Man, I knew that girls were supposed to mature faster then boys, but I didn't think she'd mature that quick."

"What did you expect?" 18 asked. "She is my daughter after all."

"And my student!" Roshi added with a wide grin on his face. "Besides, at least she has some manners on her and watches her tongue, that's certainly more than can be said for Bulma and Vegeta's daughter."

DBZ

Bra Briefs was many things. She was (in no real order): a child genius, an inventor (or at the very least a tinkerer of old inventions of her mothers'), a scientist (or at least a scientist in training), and over all a very mature and intelligent recently turned 7 year old.

She had all of her (human) grandfather and mother's brains in spades, and she knew it. She was proud of it, damn proud of it even. She was proud of her brains, of her maturity for her age, of her being a Brief. And why shouldn't she be?

The Briefs family was a family worthy of respect. Her grandfather had changed the world with his invention of the Hi Poi Capsule (or DynoCaps as some people called them), her grandmother was a sweet soul (who Bra was sure grandpa had made immortal at some point with either his science, his money, or possibly both given that she STILL didn't look a day over 20 even after all this time) that everyone loved, and her mother…

Well, in fairness, her mother was hardly a saint; one can't exactly call someone as moody and short tempered as Bulma Briefs a saint. Let alone the fact that she wound up marrying someone as big a jerk as the Grump, aka her father Vegeta.

And speaking of her father the grump, that brought up the topic of what she wasn't proud of being. What she wasn't proud of was the other half of her bloodline; her Saiyan half as represented by that overblown raspy voiced windbag of a father of hers. She wasn't proud of the fact that her father was a violent jerk, as opposed to just being regular jerk like he was today.

Nor, from what bits and pieces her father told her and Trunks about the Saiyan race, was she proud of her so called "people's" culture. If one could describe what amounted to two stereotypical meat headed men, thumping their chests and punching one another in the arm a culture.

Sounded more like a testosterone drenched excuse to go out into the universe and act like a bunch of space bullies. Say what you would about humans, but at least they had civilization and science, sweet beautiful science, on their side if nothing else.

She was not fond of like training like her older brother Trunks was, or flying (why waste ki when you could have a machine do it for you in comfort and style?) that much, or any of the other crude warrior nonsense that her father forced her older brother to go through.

Or that 'Sayian pride' baloney that her father kept on rambling about when he wasn't ranting about his long dead rival Kakarot or being the Prince of a long since dead race that, when you got right down to it from a technical standpoint, considered of just one member.

So why was it that she was currently in her father's gravity room that lone day in the year Age 774?

Well, the answer to that was twofold: Her father, pompous jerk that he was, was now forcing her to train in order to compete with 'that blasted fool Kakarot's's daughter ChiChi Jr.

The other reason?

Bra had needed to figure out how the gravity chamber worked, and given how possessive (just one of her daddy's oh so many fine qualities) her boar of a father could be, Bra had decided to start training a few months ago with him and then staying a bit afterwards to look at the room's inner workings.

Now, with Marron's suit done, the plan had been to somehow weasel out of training with her father, but as luck would just have to have it, 'that simpleton Kakarot' was coming back on the day of the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament. Which meant double time for her and Trunks to show up Gohan and Chi.

"For goodness sake Bra!" her father barked in his signature raspy and annoyed voice. "You'll never become a Super Saiyan or defeat Kakarot's girl at the rate you're going. We've only got the room up to 15 times the Earth's gravity. Pitiful. Well, at least there's always your brother if nothing else…"

At hearing her older brother's name, Bra felt her left eye start to twitch just a wee bit uncontrollably. Memo to self, Bra thought as she gritted her teeth madly in pain. Make robot to shave off dad's idiotic looking widow's peak at some point in revenge.

When her father had deemed that they had trained enough for the day, Bra madly ran (not flew, mind you) back to her room/laboratory on the second floor of Capsule Corp.'s headquarters.

"Thank Kami, it's finally over!" Bra let her tired, weary body slump to the floor as she inhaled the smell of oils, silicon, copper, electrical circuits, and the other wide assortment of smells that made up her personalized laboratory. Her own Science Sanatorium (aka what would have otherwise been her closet for shopping and clothes had she any interests in either).

"Bad day I take it Bra?"

The lavender haired girl looked up and saw Marron smile at her, a platter of her grandmother's fresh baked cookies resting in one of her hands.

"Your grandma let me in, hope that's okay." the blond martial artist said, offering the plate to the young child genius with the warm, friendly smile that she usually had on her face when visiting the Briefs. Smiles like that made it hard for Bra to believe that cyborg 18 was really her mother, outside of the blond hair of course.

Bra spent no time in snatching all 24 cookies and shoveling them down her throat with barely a chew and a half before swallowing. Marron couldn't help but laugh at that small, barbaric display. "Very Saiyan of you Miss "I'm a human first and foremost'."

Bra could feel her face burning in embarrassment as she swallowed them all in one big gulp. "S-Shut up! You know how much I hate training with my father, the big dumb jerk!"

"Come on, even if he is the Prince of all Grumps, he's still your dad."

"Maybe, but just cuz he's there doesn't make him a good dad. Besides, that's easy for you to say, your dad is one of the nicest people on the planet and your mom's worst crime was taking a third rate cowgirl outfit from a third rate clothing store and a food van. And besides, you know that your mom loves you, all YOU have to put up with is Pervy McBeardFace and his dumb, perverted antics."

"Hey!" Marron's voice was sharply raised and her eyes narrowed in annoyance. The young student of the Turtle Style didn't like it when people focused only on her Master's perverse side… no matter how annoyingly prevalent that side of him was most of the time.

"Perverted or not Master Roshi still deserves our respect. He might not be the world's strongest fighter any more, but he still has more life experience and wisdom then either of us. And THAT makes him worthy of our respect, got it!?"

"Alright, alright," Bra said, resisting the urge to roll back her eyes as she knew that would just make the blond even angrier if she did so.

"No need to get so angry like that Marron. I'm not saying he's not wise, or that he doesn't have more experience living then either of us most likely ever will, or that he isn't worth respecting to an extent. I'm not saying that at all."

"Then what are you saying?" Marron said, voice tense and her eyes narrowed into a glare.

"I'm just saying that regardless of all that, he's a pervert and it becomes kinda hard to take him seriously at times when he acts like a horny 13 year old around our moms."

Marron's only response was to do the best imitation of her mother that she could as she shot her friend a glare that was as cold as an iceberg. Bra simply countered her blue-eyed glare with the best impersonation of her father as she could manage.

The two soon quickly realized the futility of their efforts, and Marron was the first to break eye contact and just drop the topic altogether for the moment.

"So you've finished the suit I take it?"

Bra nodded to her with a wide grin on her face as she gave Marron a thumbs up. "You bet."

Moments later, Marron's normal uniform was thrown on the floor, while she worked the back zipper of the outfit, pulling it up as high as she could make it. Finishing that, she glanced down at her new outfit.

It was the same orange as her regular gi, made of what felt like something similar to a wetsuit, and covered her whole body from the neck down. Unlike her uniform, however, the large circle with the kanji for turtle was on both the front and back of the jumpsuit.

Marron began to throw a few lighting fast punches, which she then followed up with a couple of quick jabbing kicks. The outfit may have slowed her body down just slightly, being only at 40 kilos, but it didn't seem to restrict her body's movement in any way as the suit was made of a very fluid mesh-like material.

"Sorry I wasn't able to add any blue in like your regular uniform.," Bra said with what almost sounded like a hint of sheepishness. "But between my studies, dad's training, and all the other projects I'm working on at the moment I didn't have the time."

"It's fine, so long as the suit does its job," Marron said with a careless shrug.

"Oh it will," Bra said with more than a touch of pride in her young voice. "Made sure of that. Can go up to at least 150 times the gravity of the earth for now. Can always upgrade it too it if need be, if ya want to that is."

Marron crossed her arms in thought. "Don't think I'm quite up to that level yet. I've only worked my way up to 200 Kilo shells, so I think I'll sticking with just ten times the gravity of earth and work my way up from there if that's too easy."

Suddenly she cringed as she felt the weight of the suit magnify in intensity.

"Works quick, doesn't it?"

"Yep," Bra said with a nod as she rubbed her nose with an index finger, giving a small sniff as she did so. "Anything else you think you'll need?"

Marron rubbed her small chin in thought. "Can't think of anything. If Mr. Goku was able to survive training throughout the world I think I should be okay. Why?"

Bra shrugged, "No reason, just curious and looking out for one of my best buddies is all. After all, given the weirdness and craziness of our families, it's not like either of us can have so-called 'normal' friends. Besides I need someone to rant about my father to."

At that comment, both girls began giggling. When they had finished Bra added, "Not like you could break it, made the thing out of a sort of spin off of geromantium, which was another thing that wasn't a walk in the park to make either."

"Still, at least they're better then the pair that Mr. Gohan had on."

Bra half groaned, half laughed at the memory from earlier that day. "Oh don't mention that outfit Marron, please. I mean, poor Gohan looked like he stepped out of an Akira Toriyama manga done while drunk."

Marron gave her friend a puzzled look. Had the young girl a nose, she would have wrinkled it in confusion. "Who?"

"You know, the Blue Dragon guy?"

Marron's confused look remained in its place and showed no signs of changing.

"Crono Trigger? Sandland? The Dragon Quest games? Dr. Slump?"

"I don't read much manga." Marron shrugged with an indifferent expression that would have done her mother proud. "Mostly just training and martial arts studies for me."

Bra facepalmed as she shook her head in mock disgust. "You really need to expand your horizons Mar. All training and no play will just dull yourself in the long run."

The blond girl thought it over. "Maybe so, but I can do that after the tournament is done with. In the meantime, I've got training to do. Speaking of which-"

"Way ahead of you," Bra said. With that, she clapped her hands three times. One high pitched, one low, and the third high again. The one window to her lab slid open automatically, and a cool city breeze blew in, causing more then a few papers to float and fly about the room as a result.

Marron levitated herself off of the floor and made her way toward the window. When she was halfway out the window, she turned around back to Bra.

"Best of luck with your training, Bra!" An awkward silence passed between the two girls. "You know what I mean." Marron muttered softly, her face a much darker shade of pink then it had been at Kame Island.

Not waiting for her purple haired friend to respond, Marron flew out the window, blasting off at a much higher speed into the distance when she was a good number of feet away from Capsule Corp building.

"Yeah," Bra said out loud as she went about gathering her papers, her face visibly pained at the thought of all the oh so wonderful training that was in store for her in the near future. "I'll need it."

Many weeks later, the day of the 25th World Tournament finally arrived.

And it was on this day that Chichi Jr glared at the spiky black mess that was her hair with her usual passionate dislike and annoyance. She attacked it with the long comb in her left hand, and when that didn't work, she went at it with the brush in her right. After nearly a whole minute of frantic combing, the daughter of the late Son Goku threw both of her weapons down in frustration.

Chichi Jr 0, stupid spiky hair a zillion.

When it came to her physical appearance, Chi thought her mother had named her poorly. In fairness though, her mother had been expecting a boy like Gohan and had even gone so far as to pick out a name, Goten. So the fact that she had given birth to a girl came as quite a shock to her. Thus the daughter of the Ox King did the only thing she could think of at the time and named her newly born daughter after herself.

Now, if Chichi Jr had grown up to look like a miniature clone of her namesake mother, that might not have been too terrible a fate all things told, if still a bit annoying for everyone thinking of her as nothing more than a carbon copy of her nevertheless much loved mommy. But Chichi Jr didn't look like mother, she instead looked like a near exact replica of her often mentioned dead father.

Save for her eyes, which had a least a bit of feminine appearance to them, she had the same short body, short cubby limbs, and the same baby fat round face. And then there was the hair, that Kami damned hair. Chi had tried everything she could think of short of shaving herself bald to change the style of it. She didn't even care any longer what style it was so long as it was different.

But it seemed to be that she would forever be stuck with her father's overly spiky hair. Chi's reflection in the bathroom mirror frowned. Oh well, after the many hours she had spent on working on her trying to style her hair, it was time to move on to the rest of her body. Her outfit was red, not because she felt particularly heroic, but because it was the opposite of blue (a color that her mother had worn a lot as a child and young adult) and not orange (which was associated heavily with her father) from all the pictures of him as a young man before he died for the second time.

It was a basic martial arts training uniform, or at least that was what it looked like. In reality it was what her friend Bra called a 'Graviform'. Chichi Jr had found the outfit's weight changing powers to be pretty cool all things told, and couldn't help but admire the simplistic effectiveness of the uniform's design. If nothing else, Bra had good taste in clothing designers.

It was then that she heard Gohan's voice rang out from the other side of the bathroom door: "Hey Chi, think you could hurry up in there? Bulma and all the others are here and waiting. Now come on, you don't want to be late to meet dad do ya?"

"Give me a minute Gohan, just five more minutes okay!"

"Fine, but afterwards I'm coming in there, alright?"

She opened the door eight minutes later and walked out. To her right was Gohan, dressed in the green tunic he'd be wearing along with the white turban and bulky sunglasses that would be hiding his identity for the day.

"How do I look?" Chichi Jr asked.

Gohan folded his arms and frowned. "Honestly? Like dad as a kid but with a red uniform instead of an orange one."

Chi sighed again. That was everyone's reaction, no matter if it was this outfit, a dress, or even experimenting with makeup. 'Oh Chi, you look just like your father did when he was young, only he never wore red/dresses/makeup.'

After awhile, the 'Cross dressing Goku' jokes went from confusing (as Chi had never met her father and could only glean so much of his personality from stories that her mother, brother, and family friends told her) to just plain annoying. Heck, it was part of the reason she had gotten interested in wearing dresses and dancing and singing in the first place, if only to mark herself as not just a simple clone of her deceased father. Even if she wasn't good at any of them, save of course, for sparring with her mother.

"Guess it will do." Chi muttered at last.

And with that Chi, Gohan, and Chichi Sr. all went out to the Capsule Plane.

Two hours later the Briefs, the Sons, Master Roshi, Krillin, and Android 18 were all inside Bulma's Capsule Plane.

"I've ridden on slugs faster than this vehicle!" Vegeta groused loudly to no one in particular.

"Oh hush," Bulma said.

Bra looked at her father. "Why were you even riding a slug in the first place father?" she asked in a tone that dripped with the sort of genuine curiosity that only a child scientist in training could pull off.

Vegeta looked at her, his cross expression remaining on his face as he spoke. "It was a stealth mission, one that went horribly, horribly, wrong." He ended the last of that sentence with an 'and-that's-all-we'll-talk-about' tone.

Gohan gave a small, fake cough. Vegeta and everyone else turned their attention to the costume clad young man. "Say, Vegeta, and this goes for Chi, Bra, and Trunks as well, I was thinking we should all make a promise to NOT go Super Saiyan at the tournament today."

Vegeta stared at the eldest of Kakarot's children for a moment in disbelief.

"And why would we do that?"

"Well, I for one think it's a good idea." Vegeta glared at his wife with an expression that said: No one asked you woman. Bulma continued, ignoring Vetega's glare.

"After all if you went in with your hair golden, there's a very good chance that someone would recognize you guys from the Cell Games. And if that happened then it would only be a matter of time before the media would be hounding our house, badgering us day and night for interviews and talk shows and the like."

Vegeta snorted. "I fail to see the issue. When those annoying reporters come, I'll just destroy them all."

He looked around. Everyone from Kakarot's brats, to cueball and his tin can of a wife, to even his own children, were giving him THE LOOK.

The Prince of all Saiyans sighed. "Very well, there will be no Super Saiyan transformations for the tournament."

At this Krillin let out a loud, audible sigh. "That's a relief. Maybe now I'll have a chance at placing, right dear?" he gave 18 a small jab on her arm with his elbow. But 18 simply kept her face locked in its usual disinterested expression.

Krillin sighed and looked over to Gohan. "Sure will be nice to see Goku again after all these years, won't it?"

Gohan nodded. "You bet it will."

As Krillin and Gohan continued their conversation, Chi glanced over at Trunks, who was currently bickering with his younger sister as per the usual.

"-And that makes checkmate big bro, best outta 50?"

Trunks scowled at her, his blue eyes narrowed in annoyance. "No, I'm sick of losing to you."

"Speaking of which, are you SURE you aren't interested in my deal?"

"I'm sure," Trunks replied. "As tempting as throwing the match and not having to deal with math homework for the rest of my life would be, the chances of dad finding out aren't ones I'm willing to risk. So if you want to win little sister, it will have to be on your own merits."

"Don't worry Bra, if we fight you can have the match, so long as you at least try that is!" Bra sighed as she moved her face from her smirking brother to look over to Chi. "Thanks Chi." She looked up front where her father was at. Thankfully he seemed too preoccupied with arguing with their mother to be paying any attention to their conversation.

Just then, Bulma's voice rose suddenly in volume. "Well space slugs or not we're here regardless Vegeta! Now we just have to find a place to park the plane…"

One parking job later, everyone was out exploring Papaya Island, the island that was the location for the World Martial Arts Tournament. Before them was a mass of shops, stalls, and venders, selling things from cotton candy to ice cream to the many passing visitors and tourists.

Bra had a mostly bored look on her face, as she could have gotten that and the crowds of strangers back home without having to travel two and a half hours. Trunks seemed to be more focused on the upcoming fighting, while Chi looked to be more then a bit unnerved by the massive crowd of people around her.

Having lived up in the mountains for most of her life, Chi so far didn't seem to like the idea of having so many strangers around her, or the sheer din of noise that said strangers were producing with their aimless, annoying chatter.

"Man, this place sure has changed since our day." Master Roshi commented.

"I'll say," Bulma said. "Used to be a lot smaller back then, didn't it?"

Roshi nodded sagely. "Indeed it was, indeed it was."

"You alright hun?" 18 asked, glancing down to her husband.

"I'm simply worried about Marron is all," Krillin muttered half to himself. "She mentioned a week ago from that call to Kame House that Goku wouldn't be the only 'old friend' showing up for the tournament."

"So you're thinking that she might have roped Yamcha or Tien into this thing?"

"Maybe, she IS your daughter and can be pretty forceful at times."

"True, I-"

However, 18's sentence would go unfinished as at that moment everyone heard a familiar noise behind all of them. It was a noise that most of them, save for the children, hadn't heard in seven years. It was the whooshing sound of Son Goku's Instant Transmission and with everyone's hearts beating at different but still rapid intensities, they turned around.

Much to their joy, shock, wonder, amazement, and in 18's case, indifference, Son Goku stood before them back on Earth once more. After an absence of seven years, their friend, father, and saver of the world so many times over, had finally returned.

* * *

AN: So another chapter and many, many years later we pick up at the 'real' starting point of the story. Hopefully everyone will like my unique takes on some of the more underused Z Kids.

And on that note, I believe that answers your question about Goku, Guest. Though for the record he'll be staying out of the action after he returns to Other World and he'll be staying there.

Full Power: It seems I was a touch unclear, what I meant to say was that while Ness Frost was helping me edit my chapters, I noticed just how badly I was when it came to noticing my own (at times painfully obvious) errors in spelling and word usage. So it was more my realizing just how piss poor my own editing abilities were then a comment on Ness Forst's character.


	3. Chapter 2:The Junior Tournament starts!

Chapter 2: The Junior Tournament starts! Trunks vs Time Shennhan!

Now that she had finally met him, Chi didn't know what to make of her father. He was friendly enough, sure, and certainly everyone treated him like an old friend, and mom was the happiest Chi had seen her in… well, ever really.

Still, she couldn't help but feel somewhat out of touch with the stranger who was her father. Unlike the rest of the adults, Chi had never known her father before this moment, so it stood to reason that she was currently feeling a bit of a disconnect between the two of them. Not helping matters was the fact that Goku had asked why his son was wearing makeup when he had first looked down at her.

That had annoyed Chi to no end, though she said nothing and did her best to mask it with a friendly smile. The last thing she wanted to do was to ruin everyone's happiness of having her father back, even if it was just for one day.

"What do you mean I can't enter with the adults!?"

Chi blinked, her train of thought interrupted by Trunks's raspy yelling. He, Bra, and Chi herself were now signing up for the tournament. Though upon listening in on their conversion, Chi soon learned that there was apparently a younger division now, which meant that the three of them and Marron would be fighting in a different tournament then the grownups.

The daughter of Goku thought this over and rubbed her chin in thought. If she was perfectly honest with herself, she might just like this better. She knew she wouldn't have a chance against any of the adults, and the possibility of going up against her father would just be awkward as all heck. So, this could certainly work out best for at least her and Bra if nothing else.

True, she wasn't as strong as Trunks was, since she was a year younger, and not quite as dedicated to training as he (or to be more truthfully, his father) was.

At the same time, seeing as how he could have to up against Marron, whose ability to keep going no matter how long a fight dragged along was something that had always impressed the young Son girl, that would without a doubt even the odds a good bit in her favor if she had to fight him before Bra did.

Just then, she felt a familiar ki fast approaching Papaya Island, followed by at least two others that she was sure she recognized from somewhere.

"Hey guys," Goku said. "I'm sensing a few incoming power levels. Two of them are Yamcha and Tien approaching, but I'm not recognizing the third, forth, or fifth one," Krillin said. He then crossed his short arms together and continued.

"But you're right on the other two, can't say I've ever felt them before. But at least one of them is my daughter, Marron."

Goku looked at his best friend, his expression stunned. "You have a daughter, Krillin? Seriously, who's the mom?"

"Ahem."

Goku looked over and, for the first time since he had arrived back on earth some 20 minutes ago, finally noticed 18's existence.

"If Android 18 is her mom then that means… you married an android?"

"Cyborg." Both 18 and Krillin said in unison. Krillin added: "Turns out Dr. Gero just modified her some, while leaving all her… ya know parts intact, which allowed us to have Marron."

"Ohhhh, but why would Gero-"

"Don't know or care and I suggest you do the same.," 18 interrupted quickly as her cheeks started to color pink, cutting Goku off in a hard tone of voice that said that the topic of why Gero let her keep her ability to reproduce was over.

Goku nodded casually. "Fair enough. Good to see tthat you're one of the good guys now 18."

18 snorted. "Feh."

A few short minutes later, Marron, Yamcha, a blonde haired woman and boy, and Tien all landed in front of everyone. The three of them everyone had been expecting. But the other three they hadn't. One was a man with black shoulder-length hair and blue eyes, who had a bright orange banana wrapped around his neck.

The other two were a child who looked a few years older than the rest of the kids, and a woman with green eyes. Both, has had been mentioned had blond hair and were standing next to Tien. The boy had the same serious eyebrows as Tien did (though the boy's eyebrows matched his hair color), with green eyes similar to Lunch. On his head was a black baseball cap with a red dot on the top and a green T shirt with the picture of a crane in the middle.

Before anyone could say a thing, however, Yamcha burst out into a big grin when his eyes locked onto his old dead friend.

"Goku, it's been way too long man!" the former bandit said as he went over and smacked his old friend on the back. "How's the afterlife been treating you?"

"Yamcha, Tien, good to see ya guys!" Goku's face broke out into an enormous grin. "Been pretty good myself, won a tournament against a bunch of really powerful dead fighters, one of them even happened to look a lot like Piccolo now that I think about it."

He glanced over to the woman and the child. "Um, excuse me miss, but who are you exactly?"

The blond woman snorted in response. "'Who are you' he says, like he don't even remember who helped saved his sorry butt after he got himself captured by the Red Ribbon Army."

"We talked about this-" Tien hissed as he put a hand on the woman's shoulder. He glanced over to Goku. "Everyone, you remember Lunch, I hope?"

It took a moment for the name and face to sink in before Bulma, Roshi, and Oolong all blanched together in memory.

"I-It's nice to see you again Lunch." Roshi stammered.

"R-Right!" Oolong added with a nervous smile. "Good ole Lunch who-"

"Never once got a letter or phone call or nothin' from you guys.," The blond woman cut him off, her voice hard and harsh. "If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you guys had forgotten about me." Lunch glared at the trio as she placed her hands on her hips.

"D-D-Don't be silly Lunch," Bulma said. "How could we ever forget someone as… unique as you?"

"How indeed?" Lunch said with a snort. She then gestured to the boy next to her. "Anyways. This is our son, Time. Son, say hi to mamma's old buddies."

Time gave a small bow. "It's an honor to meet you all." Now that the child's relation to Tien and Lunch had been cleared up, everyone could see the resemblance as Time looked more or less like a blend of both of his parents. They could even see the third eye that stuck out through the fluffy volume of bond hair.

"Y-Your son…" Bulma stammered.

"You married LUNCH!?" Both Goku and Krillin repeated together with shared dumbstruck expressions.

Tien nodded. "It was right after the Cell games, Lunch tracked me down again and revealed that I had gotten her pregnant three years before I had set off to train for the Androids. She had kept out of sight during that time so I could train for the upcoming battle. Feeling that the only honorable thing to do was to return that kindness and stay with her and raise our son-" He paused with a shrug of the shoulders. "Here we are seven years later. Choutzu is staying home, holding down the fort as it were."

"I-I see," Roshi murmured as he adjusted his sunglasses. "And things have been alright then, what with-"

"The fact that I share the body with a brainless blue haired halfwit?" Lunch finished. "Yea, other then that it's been okay. Though allergy season's a real bitch."

"Excuse me," a young voice spoke up.

Everyone turned and looked down in the voice's direction. Sure enough, there was Marron, only a few feet away from the adults, her hands resting on her hips in a relaxed manner with a somewhat bored expression on her face. The gravity suit that Bra had given her had clearly seen much action, as it was now a wrinkled, dirty, scuffed up mess of a uniform.

"I was wondering where Bra, Chi and the rest were at. It's been a while since I've seen them and-"

" They're down the hallway some." Goku pointed to the dark tunnel near the group. "They've already registered, though only for the Junior Division."

"I see…" Marron looked over at her father and mother and smiled warmly. "If it's alright daddy, I'd like to go sign up now."

"Sure kiddo, good luck."

Time glanced up to his father. "I'll go sign up as well."

Tien said nothing, but nodded his approval.

When both kids had signed in and wandered off out of sight, Goku turned his attention to Number 17. "I take it since 17 is with you, he's a good guy now too?"

It was at this point that 17 finally spoke up. "I haven't been going around blowing up buildings or slaughtering innocents, if that's what you're thinking."

"Oh, well that's good. So will you or Lunch be entering as well?"

"No, though as tempting as a rematch with the Namek would be, I'm just here simply as a spectator."

"Oh, okay then." Goku turned his head to Lunch.

"Unless they've gone and lifted that ban on weapons, I ain't enterin'," the former outlaw replied gruffly as she folded her arms together.

"Are you sure Lunch?" Tien replied as he put a hand on her shoulder again. "You've become quite a formidable fighter in your own right these past seven years, the machine gun just slows you down anyways."

"Maybe so, but that gun was my first baby. It's seen me through thick and thin. Wouldn't feel right fighin' without it."

"Well, on a different subject, I take it Marron's a student of yours Master?"

Roshi chuckled. "Partly Goku, partly. It's been mostly a three way job between myself, Krillin, and 18 though."

"Uniform's a bit different though."

"That's because my daughter, Bra, made it for her," Bulma said, not bothering to hide the pride in her voice. "It's apparently a wearable gravity room that can change the amount of weight that's on the person's body."

_Huh, Bulma and Vegeta had another kid_., Goku thought to himself. _Guess without me to fight it's not like he would have had much else to do besides training. Guess he eventual got bored and needed something else to do... now that I think about it I guess that is why we have Trunks. And from the sound of it, it seems like this Bra didn't fall far from Bulma's part of the undergarment tree._

"So how is she as a fighter?" Goku asked Tien and Yamcha. "Marron I mean."

"She's dedicated, I'll give her that much." Tien replied. "I'm amazed she was able to pick up as much as she did during the short time we had to train her."

"Yea," Yamcha said with a shrug. "She's a driven fighter, that one. Same for Tien's kid, and both can be a bit bossy, which might explain why they bicker as much as they do."

At this, 17 let out a small chuckle. "Well given who her mother is, I can't say I'm surprised in the least."

18 shot him a withering glare, or at least a glare that was more withering than usual.

"Either way, if it wasn't for her, neither Yamcha nor I would have bothered to compete in this tournament," Tien said.

Goku arched an eyebrow. "Really now?"

"Yea," Yamcha added. "Tien didn't want to interrupt his training with Lunch and Time, and I didn't want to compete because I won't have a snowball's chance on the sun against you guys."

"Well," Goku said, giving the former desert bandit a friendly smile. "I'm glad you're here, now it really will be like old times!"

He turned back to Krillin. "Right?"

Krillin nodded and gave a thumbs up. "You bet Goku!"

"Well in that case, you guys may wish to go ahead and sign up then."

Goku, Krillin, Yamcha, and Tien all looked at one another and nodded in unison. "Right!"

DBZ

"There are quite a number of fighters here," Time remarked as both he and Marron took in the crowd before them. They had both just stepped out of the hallway, declining to change as they were already wearing the clothes that they'd be fighting in for the tournament.

Time shoved one hands in the front of his jeans while he adjusted his black-with-a-red-dot baseball hat with the other. "Almost makes me wish that we could compete with them all."

"Yea…" Marron replied in a distant voice, eyes wide in wonder. Having lived her life mostly on the small island of Kame House, this many people with so many different conversations going on at once were more than a bit awe inspiring and even intimidating.

Time noticed the blond girl's absentminded staring. "Hoy, earth to the baby blender!"

That snapped Marron out of her gaze as she reactively pounded Time's closest arm with a punch.

"Jerk."

"Ice Princess."

"Three eyed weirdo."

Time opened his mouth to fire back with another insult when a loud voice caught both his and Marron's respective attentions.

"HEY MARRON, OVER HERE!"

Both blonds looked over and Marron broke out into a big smile as she dashed over, Time trailing behind her, to the group of people where the voice had came from.

"Bra, Chi!"

"Marron!"

All three girls came in for a three-way hug that lasted a few good long moments before they let go. After weeks of the three of them having not seen one another, the hug was desperately needed.

Time simply stood alone from the trio of girls, feeling more than a bit of a fourth wheel just then.

"So how have you two been?" Marron asked.

"I've been alright," Chi replied in a chirp-like tone. "Been helping big bro and his new girlfriend train for the tournament."

Marron frowned as her face became confused. "Girlfriend?"

"Hey Marron!"

Marron looked up and saw Mr. Gohan walk over to them, still dressed in the same silly outfit that he had worn on Kame Island. By his side was a short haired, blue-eyed young woman who looked about the same age as Gohan himself. Judging by her somewhat higher than normal energy, Marron thought that she must be a fighter.

"Videl," Gohan said when the two teenagers had reached the group of children. "This is Marron, the daughter of a good friend of mine. She's quite the fighter for her age."

"Like your sister?" Videl remarked in a suspicious tone.

For a moment, Gohan hesitated before saying, "Well, more or less, yea."

"I see." Videl looked down at Marron, while Marron likewise looked up to the tall (from her perspective) teen with interest. For a moment, neither said a word as they just glared at one another.

Finally Videl closed her eyes and smiled slightly before reopening them. "It's nice to meet you Marron." _What sort of little girl that age can make a glare like that_, Videl thought to herself as she felt a drop of sweat slide down the side of her face.

"Likewise Miss Videl," Marron said as she gave a small bow.

"coughkissasscough." Behind his shades, Gohan blinked as he glanced down in the direction of the male sounding voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there, who are you supposed to be?"

"My name is Time, I'm the son of Tien and Lunch Shinhan."

"Really now?" Gohan said as he felt his shades slip slightly down his nose. "Never would have guessed-"

"Hey, GOHAN!"

Both Gohan and Videl looked up to see Goku, waving his arm for his son to come over as he and the rest of the adults came out of the tunnel.

Gohan quickly glanced back down at the kid again.

"Bestofluckinthetournament. YoutooChi!"

With that, Gohan dashed over to his father and friends with Videl in tow, his hand clamped around her wrist.

"Dad!"

"Hey Gohan, it's good to see you. Nice outfit."

"Thanks, Bulma made it for me. I'm entering as the Great Saiyaman."

"That so?" It was then that Goku noticed the girl. "Oh, are you that Videl girl my son's been talking about so much?"

At his comment, both Videl and Gohan's faces flushed red.

"Come on," Goku said with a laugh. "I was just joking you two."

Blush fading from his face, Gohan was about to answer when yet another voice bombastically called out to them.

A dark blond haired man in a black suit and red tie ran up to them, a broad grin on his mustached face. Both Goku and Krillin broke out into smiles when they realized who it was.

"And here I started to think I'd never see you guys again," the World Announcer remarked with a happy smile. "I mean how long has it been really? You guys haven't been out to compete in the world tournament in AGES."

"Well, you know." Goku scratched the back of his head. "World to save and all that."

"Speaking of saving the world-" The Announcer took a quick glance from side to side before leaning his head in closer. "Hercule Satan didn't actually beat Cell, did he? Come on Goku baby, I KNOW it was really you that did it," the man asked in a hushed voice as he gave Goku a playful jab in the ribs.

"No comment," Goku said as he, Krillin, and the rest of the male fighters let out a knowing laugh.

Shrugging his shoulders, the World Announcer then raised a lone index finger to his face. "I can't TELL you guys how happy I am to see you. Ever since your gang stopped entering the fights have been nothing but capital B boring."

It was at that moment that he noticed 18 and Vegeta standing nearby. Both of them were looking off in different directions with indifferent expressions.

"They with you?" the Announcer asked. He had only gotten half a yes and a nod out of Goku before cutting the dead warrior off. "GREAT! The more the merrier! Just try not to blow up the ring this time okay?"

Piccolo gave the man a rare, small smile. "We'll try." The tone was one that was almost friendly, which by Piccolo standards was down right amicable.

The Announcer let out a good-natured chuckle, before his shade covered eyes were drawn to the halo above Goku's head.

"You… haven't always had that gold ring over your head, have you?"

"Well," Goku replied as his eyes went up to lock onto his halo. "Thing is I've been dead ever since the fight with Cell, but they let me come back for a day just to compete."

For the longest moment, the World Tournament Announcer was in a rare state of speechlessness, unsure of how exactly to respond to that.

To the man's credit, however, he quickly recovered and gave it all a dismissive wave of the hand. "Well, that's weird. But after all the crazy stuff I've seen you and your friends do I'd be crazy to start doubting you now, am I right Goku baby?"

_Nice to know that there's at least one person who knows how great my dad is_, Gohan thought to himself with a smile.

"Well," the Announcer said as he began to back away from the others. "I've got business to take care of. Best of luck to all of you ringside, I'm expecting a super show ya hear!?"

At this everyone gave the man a nod in agreement, with Goku holding up his index and middle fingers in a V shape.

"What was that all about?" Videl asked Gohan, her voice a hushed whisper.

"Well my dad and his friends ARE past competitors, makes sense that they'd be friends with the Announcer."

Videl frowned, but said nothing. There was no faulting the logic, but something still seemed off. What had the World Announcer felt was so important that he had to whisper it to Goku's dad (the whole coming back from the dead for a day thing hadn't yet fully sunk in)?

She supposed it was just another mystery about Gohan and his life that needed cracking at some point. But not today, today she'd do her best to get to the same round as "The Great Sayiaman," and then the children of two of the past World Tournament champs could properly duke it out. It would be a fight worth remembering.

It was at that moment that the roar of the crowd of spectators cut off Videl's thought, as well as brought the rest of Gohan's group of strange friend's' attentions to the front of the courtyard.

Standing above the horde of fighting fanatics, clad in his brown martial arts gi with his golden championship belt wrapped around his waist, was the so-called world savior himself: Hercule Satan.

"OH YEA!" Both his arms were raised to the sky, his fingers in the pose of victory. "WHO HERE WANTS AN AUTOGRAPH FROM THE WORLD'S GREATEST FIGHTER? CUZ I'M CHARGING FOR THE FIRST 50!"

"Go Satan!" The crowd cheered as they pumped one of their fists in the air in unison. "Go Satan! Go Satan!"

"Man, people would cheer for a goldfish if you put a belt on it." Krillin's remark was met with a round of chuckles, save for Videl who simply glared at the short, bald headed man.

"Where do you get off insulting my dad like that?" she snapped as she put her hands to her hips. "I know he's a blowhard and all but he still saved all of our lives, the LEAST you could do is show him a bit of respect."

"Hey now," Gohan said as he put a hand on Videl's back. "I'm sure Krillin didn't mean anything by it, it was just a harmless joke, RIGHT KRILLIN?"

Krillin let out an audible gulp. "R-Right."

"Well," Tien said, hoping to change the topic. "Let's get going, shall we?"

The massive crowds of fighters now stood in a U shape around three Tournament monks and a short, spectacled wearing man with suspenders holding up his pants. In his hand was a microphone. "Attention please!

"The preliminaries for the world tournament are about to begin. 192 people have entered the adult tournament, but there are only 16 slots available.

"As per the rules, the returning champion is automatically allowed one of those spots, which makes for 15 openings left. To ensure fairness, we will select the finalist by way of punching strength, and the people with the highest scores on the machine will be given the spots for the tournament."

"Punching machine?" Krillin arched an eyebrow in interest before quickly lowering it again. "That's a new one."

As if on cue, three monks heaved the machine over before setting it down on the ground.

The short man quickly continued: "And now to give us a score to go by and to test the machine out to make sure that it isn't broken, we ask that the defending champion Mr. Hercule Satan come over and show these would-be champions a demonstration of his magnificent skill and strength."

His body posed with confidence, Hercule took a step forward and then stopped. He untied his long white cape and tossed it up in the air. He then took off his championship belt and held it out in one hand for all the rest of the fighters to see.

"DOES ANYBODY WANT THIS!?"

Hercule got his reply in the form of a loud cheer from most of the 192 competitors. Videl simply put the palm of one of her black gloved hand to the front of her face, trying her best to cover up the reddening of her cheeks.

_I'm not sure what's worse_, Krillin thought to himself. _Hercule Satan the show boater, or his fans?_

Hercule, being the type of man that he was, of course did not simply go and deliver a punch to the machine's big red button when he reached it. He posed, flexed, and modeled as a multitude of cameras snapped pictures of the most well known fighter on the planet. That is, until every single one of them exploded at the same time.

For a long moment, no one knew quite how to react to the sudden and explosive loss of their machines as clouds of smoke began floating up into the air. Hercule himself simply stood there mid-pose, looking only slightly more buffoonish then usual.

Gohan glanced over to his long time mentor and friend with a questioning expression.

"A ring is a place of fighting, not photo shoots. I want you to fight at your full power without worry of having your identity discovered."

"Oh. Thanks, I think?"

Hercule, meanwhile, had decided to go ahead with setting the power standard with the punching machine. Cracking a knuckle, he bent his knees down, and raised one hand with his fingers spread out in a claw like shape, while his other hand was brought back and curled up into a fist.

For a moment, Hercule did nothing more then grunt and groan. To most of the fighters, it seemed as if the man who had beaten Cell was gathering all of his strength for one mighty punch. To those that knew better, the hot air balloon was doing nothing more than letting out air.

Hercule threw his fist forward. "SATAN PUNCH!"

The hand met the red mat of the machine and above the cylinder shaped device in the rectangular box, numbers began to register.

A second later they settled on a number.

"140 points ladies and gentlemen, what incredible power!"

Hercule turned his attention back to the rest of the fighters, nearly all of whom were cheering from their champion's show of strength. Walking off back to his private office, Hercule turned around one last time to the rest of the crowd. "Good luck to all you fighters, and I hope at least one of you can break 100, that way we'll be able to have a decent match!"

"You know," Yamcha commented to Tien, making sure that Videl wasn't within hearing range., "it's times like these I wish I had entered the 24th tournament and won, if only so we wouldn't have to put up with someone like him."

Tien nodded, his face in its typical solemn expression. "It's a sad state that the martial arts are currently in. Makes me wonder if I wasn't off better off going through with it."

"'It?" Yamcha asked. "What's 'it'?"

Tin smiled as he closed his eyes for a brief moment before reopening them. "Nothing. Just an idea I've toyed with these past seven years but never gone through with is all."

With that both warriors returned their attention to the short man with glasses. "All entrees please form a line in front of the punching machine. Once we have our scores we will then assign you a number."

Next to him, an elderly looking monk raised a hand. "And anyone who is competing in the Junior Division, please come over here."

Bra, Chi, Time, Trunks, and Marron had all gathered together in one group after Krillin had wished them luck and followed the old monk off to the tournament dugout where they would have a short bit of time to chat before their part of the tournament started.

With the children gone, the crowd began to slowly dwindled in number as fighter after fighter came up, gave the machine their best punch, and left. None of them topped Hercule's score - that is, until Number 18 walked up to the stand.

Ignoring the crass comments from the weakling meatheads from the crowd, the blond cybrog gave the machine a love tap. Said tap score was 754 points.

"T-That can't possibly be right…" the short man in charge of the machine commented. "It must be broken."

18 glared at him. "Wasn't broken when that blowhard Hercule or any of these other weaklings came up to it, was it? Because if that overrated piece of scrap metal it is malfunctioning, then what makes anyone's score a certainty? The machine is fine, I'm just that strong."

"I-Um… Well… Right, moving on," the short portly man said with a gulp as he rubbed the now sweating side of his head with a handkerchief. He wanted to object but there was something about that woman's cold blue eyes that sucked the spine right out of him. "Next please?"

Krillin glared at his wife as she walked past him. "You didn't have to do that you know."

"I am not going to hold myself back for these weaklings any more then I have to," 18 replied.

When it came the turns of Tien and Yamcha, both scored 250 and 177 respectfully, this forced Videl to give both them and 18 a long look of awe and respect.

At first she had simply chalked up such a high number to a machine malfunction like the man had said, and thought that 18 had somehow weaseled her way out of having to try again.

But now that two other guys from Gohan's group of family and friends had managed to obtain scores higher than her father's, it was mindboggling and more then a little suspicious. Just how powerful were these guys anyways?

Then came Krillin (192), Gohan's father (186), the man that Gohan had called Piccolo ( whether he dressed as the long dead Demon King for kicks or intimidation, Videl could only guess at) who managed a number of 210. And then came Gohan himself, who got a score of 195.

When Videl's turn finally came up, she paused for a moment as she gathered her ki up in a similar manner as when she had first learned to summon it a month ago. Fist as tight as she could make it, Videl threw a gloved punch forward like a shotgun blast. Both hand and machine mat recoiled and reverberated for a brief moment as her number came into view.

"326?" Videl murmured to herself. "Am I really THAT much stronger then my dad?"

For a moment, Videl was so lost in thought that she didn't notice the short man's order for her to leave so the other fighters behind her could have their turn at the machine.

"Right, sorry." Videl walked over to Gohan, who noticed her puzzled and confused expression.

"You should be proud of your score Videl, next to 18's it's the highest one so far!"

"But everyone from your group is holding back!

Gohan's face froze in a mix of awkwardness and fear. "Well… maybe a little. But not by that much I swear!"

"First the flying, now dead dad's coming back to life, and now this. What the hell kind of training regimen do you and your friends GO through to get that sort of power Gohan?"

"Well-You see- I-"

It was at that moment that a resounding crash and explosion was heard. Looking up both teens saw the punching machine, or what was left of it at any rate, having been demolished by crashing into the nearby wall.

"I believe that qualifies myself," Vegeta remarked with a smirk to the short man. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"O-Of c-course sir," the man replied as his round body quavered uncontrollably. _It's a good thing he was the last of the qualifying fighters, though_, the man thought. "Um, with that the last position is filled."

Under normal circumstances, the remaining fighters would have let out a collective groan of disappointment. But given that they had just seen a man smash a machine that must have weighed easily over a 100 pounds into a wall with just one punch, the group of would-be warriors could only stare on in shock.

Before she could think of anything else, Videl then felt Gohan's hand grip itself around her wrist once more, as she was soon dragged off to join his father and friends to watch the Junior Division Tournament start up.

_Why do we have to go through this?_ Trunks Briefs thought to himself as he stood in a horizontal line. In front of them was the World Announcer, yammering about some sort of big prize for the winner of this whole kiddy pool of a tournament. The apparent 'honor' was to go and fight against the world champion Hercule himself.

Joy.

"Hey." The eldest Briefs child felt a nudge in his side.

Trunks glanced to his left to the face of the new guy, Tim or whatever his name was.

"Not sure if I introduced myself, but I'm Time." He held out a curled up fist, waiting for Trunks's response.

Trunks gave the blond ten year old a small smile and bumped his fist against Time's. "Trunks."

"I know."

"So how annoyed are you that we're having to compete in the baby division?"

Time gave a stiff shrug. "Not that annoyed, seeing as how I'll be getting a chance to fight against the one person I came here to fight anyways."

Trunks blinked. "Yea? Who's that?"

Time pointed a finger at the lavender haired boy. "You. I figure seeing as how my father fought your future self in that so-called Galactic Tournament all those years ago and lost, the least I could do is try my best to beat you."

Trunks found himself blinking for the second time in a row. "Oh. That makes sense… I guess. But I don't see how you'll have much of a chance, seeing as how I can go Super and all."

Time gave him a cocky smile. "Please, I overheard your sister and Son Goku's daughter talking, the whole lot of you space apes have been barred from transforming. While there are no such rules for Marron or myself and the Kaio Ken. I'd say that evens the odds up some in my book."

"Well… at least my hair isn't all puffy looking."

"Says the kid with natural purple hair."

Trunks opened his mouth to fire back with a retort of his own, but Time stopped him.

"The loudmouth announcer's about to finish up here. Save your insults for the ring."

"You alright Chi?" Marron asked her friend. She had noticed that her otherwise happy-go-lucky friend was unusually quiet and reserved.

Normally by this point, she was chattering about the latest episode of My Mini Pastel Colored Horsy: Magicalfriendship Z or Happy Dog. Seeing the spiky haired girl so quiet was more then a little unsettling.

Chi looked over at her friend and let out a small sigh. "I'm okay I suppose. I guess I just feel a bit bad about feeling so awkward around my dad is all."

"Why feel bad about it though?" a voice asked.

Both Marron and Chi looked over in the direction of the voice and saw Bra Briefs standing before them with a hand on her hip. Her normal white lab coat (which she had made the designers base specifically off of her grandfather's) was instead replaced with a practical pair of shorts and a black tank top.

"I mean it makes sense to me, you'd never met him before today, and he looks like an older version of you with a gold ring around his head. It only stands to reason that you'd feel a bit awkward around him. Personally I'd be a bit disturbed if you DIDN'T feel a bit awkward around the man."

"I guess so, it's just that I-" Chi paused and sniffed the air, and almost instantly she fell to her knees in pain. "Sweet Kami, what's that smell?"

"No idea," Bra gasped as she put a hand over her mouth and bent over. "Maybe all the male testosterone and ego somehow diffused its way over here?" She smiled weakly as she fell slowly to the floor.

"What in the world are you guys talking about?" Marron asked her friends, her face visibly puzzled by their reactions.

"They're talking about me ya blond shrimp!"

All three girls turned in the direction of the stranger's voice, near them stood a tan skinned teenager. She was a massive, thick-limbed girl who easily towered over all three fighters, and sure enough, a visible cloud of stench was emitting from her body.

Marron blinked once, then twice before speaking. "And you are…. Who exactly?"

"I am… Bacteriabella!"

For a long moment Marron didn't reply as she racked her memory for where she had heard that name before.

Finally, it clicked. "Oh. Your Bacterian's… granddaughter then?"

Bacteriabella smirked as she spat out a large, wet wad of mucus and spit.

"That's right. And with a-BRAAAPPP- stupid face like that there's only one person who could be your father. You're the daughter of Krillin's daughter, aren't you?"

Marron nodded. "I am, yes."

Bacteriabella's smirk increased. "Kami must be smiling on me then. Once I win my match it will be just me and you short stuff, which means after all these years my grandfather will finally be avenged!"

Marron touched her chin in thought with her thumb and index finger. "Nope," she said after a moment of silence. "Afraid I can't do it."

"Do what?"

"Care about your stupid vendetta. I just can't seem to see why someone my father fought when he was no more than a few years older than me should matter any to my life right now."

Bacteriabella's face turned a deep shade of red as she shot the young girl that was half her age a powerful death glare. Having been raised and trained by the likes of #18, however, Marron returned the glare by staring coolly at the brown mountain of a teenager that stood before her.

Seeing that her glare wasn't having any effect, Bacteriabella snorted and then spat out another large logie from her mouth. Elsewhere the Announcer called out both her and Marron's names for the first match to start. "Just get into the ring brat, I'll make you care about my vendetta soon enough."

Marron shrugged. "Alright."

Moments later the two stood in front one another, waiting for the Announcer to allow their match to start.

When he gave them the go-ahead Bacteriabella glared down at Marron and cracked her neck. "Are you ready to be put in a world of stench-based pain brat?"

Marron shrugged. "I'm ready whenever you-"

WHAM! Bacteribabella crashed her ham-sized fist into Marron's stomach, chest and abdomen, cutting the blond girl off.

Wasting no time the massive teenager slammed her to the ring's gray stone floor, bent over and belched in her face. Once, then twice, then three times before finally slamming Marron's body one more time as a finisher. Bacteriabella stood up and looked over at the blond Announcer.

"Hey Ref, start the count!"

"R-Right! One, Tw-"

"That," said Marron's voice, "will not be necessary Mr. Announcer."

Bacteriabella turned around stiffly, her face twisted in fear. Before her terrified eyes was Marron, back on her feet and brushing her small arms as she cracked her neck from side to side. There wasn't so much as a scratch on her body as she began causally stretching her muscles and limbs. "I-Impossible. How-"

"Are you as dense as your hygiene is poor?" Marron asked. "I'm not being sarcastic mind you, I'm simply wondering if you really are this stupid is all. Of course your smell based attacks didn't work. It's for the same reason that they didn't work on my father when he fought your grandfather-" Marron rubbed the barren place where a nose would have otherwise been. "No nose to know how bad you smell. Simple as that really."

"B-But-How-Are you even capable of smelling things in the first place!?"

"Well," Marron said as she began walking towards Bacteriabella, who in turn was taking many a fearful step backward as the small girl came closer and closer.

"My dad and I just can, I guess. Not sure how but we do. Mind you, it varies. Sometimes we can, sometimes we can't. This just happens to be one of those can't times I guess."

Marron paused as she gave a helpless 'What can you do?' shrug'.

"Now-"

Marron bent down in a fighting pose, her blue eyes narrowed and her expression one of the utmost seriousness. "Let's get started shall we?"

"The hell we are kid, I know when I'm beat!" Bacteriabella frantically cried out, as she swung her head to the Announcer. "Reff, I'm out, you couldn't pay me a billion Zennie to go up against that freak of a kid."

"Fair enough," the Announcer said with a nod. "Bacteriabella surrenders and young Marron is the winner!"

DBZ

"I hope you're ready to cry kid."

Time looked arrogant opponent over. While both were blonds, this one appeared to be a few years older with long hair in the back of his head while the front consisted of bangs. The name, though, Time was having trouble placing. Not that this moron looked like he was worth remembering in the first place.

"Go end that little brat Idasa!" Ah, that was it, Idasa.

The creature that shouted this might have been considered a woman of bountiful beauty to a kinder person, were it not for the fact that she lacked a very important third of the requirements. Not helping matters were the tacky low-class glasses matching red dress and lipstick, and oversize green pearl earrings that hug from her ears. Not even the pearl necklace she had around her thick neck had enough class to save her tacky taste in style.

Lunch turned to the overripe tomato of a woman and grinned. "That your son down there?"

The woman's chest heaved with pride as she adjusted her tacky glasses. "Indeed it is. My Idasa-"

"Is screwed and doesn't have a chance in hell of beating MY kid," Lunch cut in with a proud smirk on her face, causing the woman to turn the same shade as her dress and glasses. "WHY YOU NO COUNT-"

"Take a look for yerself." Lunch jutted a thumb down at the arena. Sure enough, Time was causally, almost lazily, evading each and every one of Idasa's kicks and punches.

_You know_, Time thought as he leaned his head out of the way of an oncoming punch to the side of his face, _his form's not bad given his ignorance and lack of real training. If the rest of us weren't competing, there's a good chance that he'd be the winner of this tournament._

"COME ON SON!" Time glanced up and saw his mother, who was shoving a very heavy set woman to the side with her elbow, call down from high up in the stands. "QUIT FOOLIN' AROUND AND KNOCK HIS BLOCK OFF!"

Time shrugged and turned his head back to Idasa in just enough time to see a fist land flat in his face. Idasa smirked;, happy that he had finally landed a blow on the quick little rat, but his smile quickly vanished when he felt a powerful and painful throbbing in his hand.

The taller blond boy hastily drew his hand back and opened his mouth to cry out in pain, but an incoming punch to his stomach shut him up and sent him dropping to his knees in a fraction of a second. One full count later and Time was declared the winner.

"CHEATER!" the large woman hissed, her nostrils visibly fuming, "THAT LITTLE BRAT CHEATED, I'll SUE, I'LL-"

THWHACK! Lunch smirked as she returned her hand to her lap, the woman unconscious thanks to a nice simple blow to the back of her neck.

"I-Is she-? Oolong looked over across Lunch's lap at the stone cold lump of self-importance and hot air with a worried look. So much for the hope that living with Tien all those years would have calmed blonde Lunch down some.

"Dead?" Lunch leered at the transforming pig with what looked like a sinister look. Then she smiled more warmly. "Naw, just knocked her out was all. Sides, tube of lard like that ain't worth killin' anyhow. Though if she starts insulting my boy again when she wakes up…

"I can see why you tried your best to forget that she existed," Chichi whispered in Bulma's ear. "She's a complete nutcase!"

"R-Right," Bulma replied with a nervous gulp. "Tried to forget, let's go with that." The purple haired woman glanced down at the tournament ring. "Oh, look! Trunks is fighting Time next. GO TRUNKS!"

Everyone still conscious did so and sure enough, Trunks was now indeed entering the ring. Lunch smirked as she folded her arms together. "Wouldn't be surprised if'n Time used his powers to pull that fight, though I guess it could also always just be a conwinkiedink too."

"Looks like you got your wish," Trunks remarked, a smirk of confidence on his face as he bent his body down into a fighting stance.

"Funny how that works, isn't it?" Time replied with a smirk as he bent down into the stance of the Crane Style. "Now the two of us can get a real fight without any nobodies getting in the way."

"Heh." Trunks just smirked in response as he too bent down into a fighting pose.

"BEGIN!" The Announcer shouted, and both boys were happy to comply as they both shot at one another in midair like rockets and began trading a flurry of punches and blocks. The sheer speed at which the two were fighting astounded most of the audience. Videl's blue eyes were the size of a hover car's wheels.

She may have gotten somewhat used to fighting at the crazy speed that Gohan and his sister were capable of going to, but seeing someone else do it as an onlooker? It boggled both mind and description.

Both Trunks and Time kept up their battle of blows for nearly half a minute until both suddenly stopped and landed back on the ground, still facing one another.

Both of their bodies were scattered with bruises and scrapes, but aside from that and some heavy panting, neither Time nor Trunks seemed to mind in the slightest.

"You're good," Trunks said, his smirk now a playful grin.

"Thanks." Time returned the grin with one of his own. "You too."

"Still," Trunks cracked his neck from side to side. "I'm stronger."

"Maybe, but like I said before, I've got the Kaio Ken on my side. Plus you know how much of an edge my longer limbs now give me."

Trunks scowled; much as he hated to admit it, Time was right in that regard. Those longer and older limbs of his DID give him an edge, though not much of one considering that Trunks was still-

"Though, speaking of that technique: KAIOKEN!"

A red aura surrounded Time's body as the air and ground around him began to quake and shake as a result.

_Man oh man!_ the World Announcer thought, a big goofy child-like grin on his face. _Now THIS is what the World Martial Arts Tournament is all about baby, haven't seen action this intense in YEARS and these are only kids. Though, given who their fathers are, that's not the least bit surprising. Can't say I recognize this KayoKin or whatever it's called though, must be a new move._

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IN ALL MY YEARS OF TOURNAMENT HOSTING I'VE NEVER SEEN A TECHNIQUE LIKE THIS! IF I HAD TO GUESS THOUGH, I'D SAY IT'S SOME KIND OF SPIRITUAL CONCENTRATION! HOW WILL YOUNG TRUNKS COUNTER THIS SUDDEN MOVE?"

"Yes Trunks," Time said with a cocky smirk. "How ARE you going to counter the Kaio Ken, considering you can't transform and all?"

"I'll… Think of something," Trunks said through gritted teeth. _I hope._ Trunks reballed his fists and shot forward in the air at Time once more, only for Trunks's punch to go right through the blond boy's body.

It took Trunks a fraction of a second too late to realize that the 'Time' that he was punching had a faded out look to him. Before he could react, though, Trunks felt a powerful jabbing kick to the back of his head that sent the young Capsule Corp heir flying face first into the white tiled floor.

While his face was still stinging and his mind and vision still somewhat blurry, Trunks heard Time say behind him, "The After Image technique, simple but effective wouldn't you say?"

Trunks simply hopped up to this feet and whirled his head in the direction of Time's voice.

Sure enough, Time was floating mid air, red aura still surrounding his ten-year-old frame, arms crossed in confidence.

"So, I'd say that with the Kaio Ken's current level, I'm just a wee bit stronger than you, wouldn't you say?"

"I say EAT THIS!" A sudden beam of ki blasted Time squarely in the gut and instantly the blond felt himself double over slightly as a reflex. Before he could react, however, Trunks had already vanished, reappeared, and threw back a powerful knee blow to Time's back.

CRACK! The blond was sent sailing to the ground, where he crashed front side first. To his credit, Time recovered quickly and leaped out of the way of an oncoming two-legged jump down kick. The result was a cloud of dust and debris that obscured Trunks from view.

"N-Not bad.," Time remarked. "Looks like I'll have to bring out all the stops then." He crossed his arms and began summoning his ki.

Elsewhere above the stands, Goku arched an eyebrow in surprise.

"You really taught your son THAT move, Tien, even with all the flaws it has?"

Tien nodded. "Indeed I did Goku,. Marron too, though that was because she asked. As for the flaws-" a confident smile appeared on the three eyed man's face. "Have you forgotten the Kaio Ken?"

Goku's eyes went wide. "Oh yea!" Goku gave Tien a big smile. "Pretty clever."

Back in the ring Time threw his arms in a diagonal X shaped slash and a second, identical body appeared beside him. The process was quickly repeated with both bodies, creating another two, at which all four of them did it again for a grand total of eight Time.

"Oh yea, isn't this that technique that splits your power by the number of bodies you have? So that means you're technically fighting with 1/8th of-"

"KAIO KEN TIMES EIGHT!" all eight Time's shouted together, cutting Trunks off.

The purple haired boy gulped as he took a step backwards, "Well, this isn't good…"

"Let's get started with round two," an individual Time remarked as all eight began to circle around the half Sayian like a shark to a bleeding animal. "Shall we?"

DBZ

Tien chuckled. "Looks like my son is winning, eh Vegeta?"

The Sayian Prince said nothing, though the small but visible twitch under his right eye spoke volumes. _Trunks,_ Vegeta thought as he began grinding his teeth, _you had BETTER find a way to win this fight or else!_

DBZ

Trunks felt his body hit the stone floor for- what was it, the fourth time now? He groaned as he struggled to get back up on his feet. His arms felt like jello as the wobbled under the weight of his bruised and scratched up body.

_If only I could go Super_, he thought as he glanced up with one eye as he saw all eight copies of Time zooming down in on him. _Maybe if I went all out for just a second, I might be able to knock one of his copies out of the ring._

Even in his head Trunks didn't feel very confident about his plan, but it was that or lose, and as skilled and powerful as the ten-year-old human fighter was, Trunks wasn't about to let that happen if he could help it.

He leapt up onto the soles of his feet, eyes still glued to his eight foes.

Three…

Trunks tightened his left hand into a fist.

Two...

He then did the same with his right hand.

One.

With all the copies of Time now only nanoseconds away from his body, Trunks threw back both of his arms and let out a loud and powerful shout as his body lit up in golden light and his power level skyrocketed to its maximum.

The sudden and severe increase in ki took every single one of Time's copies by surprise as they were all sent flying away like scraps of paper that had gotten stuck in a twister.

"FOLKS, UNLESS I'M MISTAKEN, IT LOOKS AS IF ALL EIGHT COPIES OF TIME HAVE BEEN SENT FLYING OUT OF THE RING DUE TO YOUNG TRUNKS'S SUDDEN AND STRANGE TRANSFORMATION! SPEAKING OF WHOM, TRUNKS BRIEFS WINS THE MATCH!"

"T-Thank goodness," Trunks mumbled as he allowed his arms to drop like dead weights.

"Hey."

With a slight nervousness, Trunks turned his head and saw Time. There was just one of him now, and his body was also a mess as bruises, scrapes, and scratches covered his arms and chest. In spite of these light wounds, however, Time still had on the same cocky smirk from earlier. "Good match, even if you DID have to cheat to win."

Trunks opened his mouth to fire back a retort but decided to drop it.

"Thanks, you're not bad yourself. Didn't think someone who was only human could be that powerful."

Time shrugged. "What can I say? My family takes it's training pretty seriously. Either way, I'll beat you next time, fake blond transformation or no."

Now it was Trunks's turn to grin. "You're on!"

With that, both boys walked off and the Junior Tournament continued…

And on went the tournament, though the rest of the matches didn't quite reach the intensity of Time and Trunks's fight, that is, until the two Briefs siblings were forced to fight it out in one of the semi finals.

Bra would face off against her older brother in the next round, while Chi and Marron would face off against one another in the round after that. The winners from those two matches would go onto the final round and the winner of that match would be declared the champion of the Junior Martial Arts Tournament.

"So what would you guys do if you won the money?" Chi asked Bra and Marron. Bra was touching her toes with her hands repeatedly while her older brother was stretching his legs as both still had a bit of time before the match.

"Honestly? I'd probably give it all to charity," Bra said as she bent back up straight. "I mean if you have more money than Kami, what do ya need with more of it ya know?"

Chi smiled. "That's cool." She looked to Marron, who was currently glaring at Time, both of them trying to see who could give the other the dirtier look. So far, it seemed to be a tie. "What about you Marron?"

Marron said nothing for a moment, her gaze still locked with Time's, as she thought the question over for a moment. "I'd install sound proofing in the dojo below Kame House.," she said finally through gritted teeth.

"Kame house has a basement dojo?" Bra asked, blinking. "Didn't know that, not that mom's ever let me go there mind you."

Marron shrugged. "Apparently. Even father wasn't aware of its existence and he's been training with master Roshi since he was 12."

"Odd. So why would you want to make it sound proof?"

"It's for my parents really. Kame House is pretty small so whenever they want some 'alone time' they always cook up some excuse about having to head to the city for something and most likely rent out a room at some cheap motel, or at least dad does. Mom doesn't really care if she knows that I know what she and dad are really doing when they go off like that."

For a moment, none of the kids said a thing. Then Time broke the silence.

"I'd probably use the money to buy a bank that my mom and I could rob over and over without worry."

Marron glared at him. "No one asked YOU."

"Well excuse me for wanting to express my opinion ya mini tin toy!"

"Three eyed freak." Marron muttered back.

Time simply rolled all three of his eyes (the third was kept hidden by a large chunk of blonde hair). "You really aren't all that creative when it comes to smack talk, are you kid?"

Marron's whole body tensed up as she balled her hands into tight fists. Before either blond could start anything, Chi quickly changed the subject.

"So why would your parents bother to do all that just for some alone time? Couldn't they just fly somewhere peaceful or something?" Chi asked as she turned to face Marron, head tilted to the side.

Bra, Time, and Marron looked at each other, then back to Chi.

"You haven't heard of the bird and the bees yet, have you?" Bra asked.

Chi looked at the both of them with a perplexed expression. "What do birdies and bugs have to do with this?" she asked, her face scrunching up in confusion.

She could picture birds, sure. Bugs too. She could even picture the two creatures together, hanging out and being best friends, but what that had to do with Marron's parents sneaking out together was beyond her.

Bra opened her mouth to explain when she heard the Announcer call out her and her brother's names.

"Can't talk, got an older brother to beat thanks to Time. Thanks Time!" Bra then turned her head back to Chi. "Ask Marron. Or Time. Or both. Bye!"

With that, Bra dashed off. Chi looked at Marron expectantly. Marron glanced to where Time was but the blonde boy had vanished on her.

Marron cringed and could feel her cheeks starting to heat up. "It's got to do with baby making. I'll tell you when you're older."

Chi frowned. "But we're all the same, age more or less, and both you and Bra and Time know about this birds and bees stuff. I WANTA KNOW!" The small half Saiyan lifted her foot and stomped the ground with so much force that it made a small crater in the ground.

"I-You-Fine! It's a reference to parents getting it on to make babies. Happy now?" Marron could feel her cheeks burning red, something she was not often prone to doing. She only hoped that Chi's curiosity would stop there.

Thankfully, Chi smiled. "Yes." Then she thought over what Marron had said and after turning it over in her mind, asked: "But you're still an only child, so why do your parents-?"

"Just shut up and watch the match okay!?" Marron hadn't thought it was possible for a human's face to flush this hard; obviously, she had been VERY wrong.

"... Fine," Chi said with a pout as both she and Marron turned their attention to the two Brief siblings, who were about to knock the tar out of each other.

* * *

And here we've reached the last of the super long chapters, thankfully the lengths are going to be a good bit more manageable length wise from here on out folks. Now for the Q and A session, which just consists of one person, so let's get it knocked out, shall we?

Maxi: Are you aware of the idea behind the Butterfly effect concept in time travel (a concept I personally think is utter nonsense seeing as how there's more then one lone butterfly in the world, and thus it shouldn't matter if one stinking butterfly bites it or not)? Well imagine what a whole person can have on the world, that and Bibidi dying before creating Buu because reasons might have something to do with the kids being as different as they are. But I'm glad that you're enjoying the story dude.


	4. Chapter 3: Bra vs Trunks

Chapter 3: Bra vs. Trunks

IT SEEMS WE'RE IN FOR A SPECIAL TREAT TODAY MARITAL ARTS FANS, AS BOTH TRUNKS AND BRA BRIEFS ARE ABOUT TO GO AT IT TO SEE WHICH OF THESE TWO SIBLINGS WILL MOVE ON TO THE FINAL ROUND OF THE JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP!"

"Good to see he's still got the energy after all this time," Goku said as he cracked a small smile at the Announcer's enthusiasm. It was true, despite the years that had passed between the 23rd and 25th World Tournaments, the Announcer seemed to have just as much energy as he had all those years ago working on the 21st and 22nd Tournaments.

Some things, as they say, never changed.

Goku turned to Vegeta. "Still can't believe that your two kids are going to go at it though. Who do you think will-"

"Trunks," came Vegeta's gruff reply.

Goku blinked. "Really? What makes you say that?"

"If anything shouldn't Bra be the most likely winner?" asked Yamcha. "I mean, it looks as if Time did quite the number on the kid. Heck, the only reason why he won was-"

"Because, Kakarot and human friend, as much progress as my daughter has made in her training and even with becoming a Super Saiyan, the boy is still stronger than her. So loss of energy or no, I still trust my son to win in the end. It's as simple as that."

"Maybe so, but power isn't everything."

At that comment Yamcha couldn't help but let out a hardly fake cough (something that even Goku picked up on) as he muttered: "Says the guy who's one of the most powerful beings in the universe..."

Down below, the Announcer had give the two siblings permission to start, and Trunks wasted no time in going on the offense as he shot off and flew at his younger sister with the speed of a small personal capsule plane, launching a powerful kick at her with his right leg when he came within range.

Bra, to her credit, blocked the blow with her left elbow and tried to quickly counter by delivering a straight kick to the boy's jaw. Although his hand was already in mid motion, Trunks' reflexes were too slow and he caught the full force of his sister's kick with his chin.

The blow sent Trunks flying up in the air, where he halted himself after reaching above the stands of people. For a moment, he simply floated in midair as he caught his breath. _This… isn't good_, Trunks thought as he looked down at the ground to keep an eye out for his younger sister. _Looks like my fight with Time took more out of me then I thought. And add in sis's training with dad and I'm not sure if-_

WHAM! A powerful and sudden double handed smash to Trunks's skull cut him off as he was sent plummeting down to the arena ground like a meteorite. He stopped himself in midair just a few feet from the arena's hard flooring, preventing the worst of what would have been a very painful impact.

Trunks instantly looked up and glared at his younger sister. "Not bad sis! But it's going to take a lot more then that to bring me down!"

Bra's only reply was to hold up an outstretched arm, her palm flat, open, and facing her younger brother. An orange ball of energy appeared in said palm not a moment later. On her face was a VERY Vegeta like smirk that the young scientist in training would have been horrified to learn that she had on her face.

_What is that fool girl thinking?_ Vegeta thought as he kept his intense focus on battle below him. _She knows she lacks the control that Trunks has, so why summon that blast of ki.? Damn it Bra, if any of these fool spectators die it's on your shoulders!_

Trunks looked at the ball of ki with a confused expression. "If you're trying to bluff me, sis, it isn't going to work. You and I both know you aren't dumb enough to start unleashing energy attacks considering your crap control over them."

Bra's only response was for the expression for her lips to turn into a smirk of such vast proportions that there would have been no doubt that she was the daughter of the Prince of All Saiyans. Suddenly the ki ball shot forth from Bra's hand with a speed that greatly resembled that of a baseball being thrown by a professional player, if said player was half Saiyan that is.

Not having much time to react or think, Trunks did the only thing he could think of and crossed his arms together in an X shape as he shuffled his legs and braced for impact.

The resulting collision was a billowing dark cloud of blinding black smoke and a mild stinging sensation that covered his whole body. Still, compared to what their father could dish out, the blast was nothing more then a mild annoyance.

"That the best you got sis?" Trunks called out to his sister, his voice sounding far more confident than his battered body suggested. Bra, who was still on the other side of the wide arena, said nothing. "Cuz it's going to take something more powerful then that to-"

Bra summoned forth another ki ball and blasted it at Trunks. Then another, and another, and another, until Trunks was under an onslaught of ki orbs.

And while one might not have been much, a near endless barrage of them did build up in pain and, unless he was Super, would slowly force him back centimeter by unwilling centimeter until an eventual ring out.

He could always try to fly out of the way, but that wasn't an option, since once a blast left Bra's hand, she had no control over it. Which meant that some of the spectators could get hurt.

Which meant that all he could do was grin and bear it until he lost by a ring out by either touching the wall or the grass. Either way it would be disgraceful to lose in such a simple manner against his sister. Even if he had promised her he would give her the fight, it sure as hell wasn't going to be THAT easy!

It was at that moment, when he could start to feel the solidness of the arena leave his heels, that inspiration of a sort struck Trunks. What he did next was by no means clever, smart, or if Bra was a stronger opponent, sane. But it was in its own way genius in its simplicity.

Trunks was airborne once more, flying directly at his sister with fists balled tightly as he shrugged off the machine gun like hail of ki blasts that was now pelting his body with increasing power as he got closer and closer to Bra's position.

As for Bra, she didn't have an IQ of 200 for nothing. Letting out a small child level swear that was drowned out by the deafening noise of her blasts, Bra lifted her other hand and summoned another growing orb of raw energy.

But instead of a ball, she set out a beam of ki, followed about a second later by a second beam as she converted her balls of ki into a solid ray of ki to join the first.

Both beams hit their mark and Trunks let out a loud noise that was a mixture of a grunt and a cry. He tried moving forward, but his sister's dual beams were keeping him at bay. So, Trunks increased his ki as far as it would go without going Super. In response, Bra increased her power output and even placed her legs apart in an effort to brace her body.

That lead, to the surprise of neither Trunks nor, to Trunks slowly being pushed back to the ring's edge once more.

_This is bad,_ Trunks thought, his eyelids shut tightly to protect them from a siege of ki output, the shock of his sister moving him back for a second time in one fight. _Not only is she moving me back, but because dad's been training us separately for the past few months, I don't have any idea how much longer she'll last. If she keeps it up at this pace, I'll lose…_

Suddenly his eyes shot open and the hair on his head began to rise up on its own accord, instead of from the force of the two beams. Then, it and the aura around him turned a brilliant gold color.

Having gone Super, Trunks then plowed through Bra's two beams of energy, and upon reaching her, pulled back a fist.

WHACK!

The resulting blow to the cheek should have packed enough power to send Bra crashing into the arena wall, thus giving Trunks the match, had she not halted herself in midair at the last moment. Having done that she floated over to her older brother, eyes narrowed and a vein of range now visibly pumping from her forehead.

"WHAT PART ABOUT NOT GOING SUPER DIDN'T YOU UNDERSTAND YOU BLOCK OF A MEATHEAD!? I mean transforming for a brief moment against Time wasn't bad enough, but were you THAT desperate to win that you had to go all out like that?"

Having broken her 'No pointless blathering in battle' rule, Bra balled her hands into fists, and tensed her whole body to brace itself. With a loud BANG a powerful blast of air erupted from Bra's whole body as her hair turned from straight and cut trimly, to spiky and gold like her brother's.

Trunks frowned. "It's not like any one of these slack jawed idiots will believe their own eyes, after our match is over with they'll probably just chalk it up to smoke and-"

CRACK! A powerful blow from Bra's knee cut Trunks off as he was sent hurtling to his left. He only flew back a few feet before stopping himself again, not bothering with complaining about Bra's cutting him off.

Bra shot at her brother, her fist pulled back for a punch that Trunks managed to block when she brought the blow in close to connect. Trunks tried to counter with a punch of his own, which Bra in turn also successfully blocked.

This just led to an all out, old fashioned brawl between the two Brief siblings, with both of them launching kicks and punches at speeds that led the already speechless crowd even further in.

"Now do you see what I mean Kakarot? Bra can't win even as a Super Saiyan, Trunks is stronger then her both in physical power and ki output. Furthermore she-"

WHAM!

"AND IT SEEMS AFTER A VERY INTENSE FIGHT BETWEEN SIBLINGS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THAT BRA BRIEFS IS THE WINNER OF THE FIRST SEMIFINAL MATCH OF THE JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP!"

Goku gave his rival a cheeky grin and nudged him with his elbow. "What was it you were saying about Trunks's victory being such a sure thing, Vegeta?"

"… Shut up Kakarot."


	5. Chapter 4: Marron vs Chi

Chapter 4: Marron vs Chi

Some minutes ago, before Bra and Trunks's match ended, Marron was watching the match with her undivided attention, while Chi (much to her shame) had gotten somewhat bored halfway through. She had managed to hold her attention more with Time and Trunk's fight, but that was only because Time had more cool looking moves then Trunks.

Besides, fighting and sparring against other people yourself was more fun than watching other people doing it. So Chi and had allowed her mind to turn to other thoughts. Thoughts such as what exactly what was it that she was doing here?

She liked sparring and roughhousing and thought it was loads of fun. But did she really like it enough to enter a tournament, let alone one that encompassed the whole world? If she was honest with herself, no, she didn't like fighting enough for that. A hobby was one thing, a tournament another.

In fact, she had entered because everyone, from her mother to her older brother, had just assumed she was going to enter because she was 'the daughter of Goku', which meant that fighting was in her blood.

And, in fairness, it was. The memories of the many spars with her mother, and more recently Gohan, came flooding back, memories of enjoying herself as she blocked and waved and kicked and punched.

Those were far too authentic to for her to lie to herself about. But in the end, it was just a hobby to her. Just one of the many interests that she had, although fighting did seem to be the best of her choices. And Chi knew herself, or at least thought that she knew herself (she was only 7 after all), well enough to know that she didn't have the discipline to become a full time martial artist like Marron.

Thinking of which, Chi glanced over at the blond martial artist and was amazed that she was still watching the match. She voiced said thoughts, and Marron looked away for a brief moment. "Of course I'm still watching, one of us will have to fight the winner after all and if it's me I'd like to see if I could find any weaknesses I could exploit," she said, and returned her gaze to the match.

Chi began biting her lower lip in thought. _The difference between Marron and me's way too big, if I wind up fighting her… I'll probably lose. She knows how to take a fight seriously and I don't, what hope do I have against that?_

"Marron?"

Marron turned to her. "Yea?"

"I give up, I don't think I can do this."

"Why?"

"Huh?" Chi could see that she now had the blond girl's undivided attention.

"I mean," Marron said, continuing. "Why do you want to give up.? Our match hasn't even started yet."

"You're stronger then me Marron, I'd probably lose if I just fought against you."

Marron blinked as her face turned a small shade of pink. Her blue eyes glanced down at her well worn blue tabi. "I-I'm flattered you think that Chi, but you're a Super Saiyan. I couldn't compete with that in terms of raw strength or ki no matter how much I trained. Truth is I'll one day be surpassed by you and Trunks and Bra and the rest until I just won't be able to keep up. I-"

"DON'T SAY THAT! AND FORGET ABOUT STUPID SUPER SAIYAN THING!" Chi snapped angrily, cheeks flushed with rage.

"If anyone deserves to win this thing it's you, Marron. Or Time, had Trunks not cheated like he did. The both of you have had to work hard for your strength while the rest of us have just been lucky to be born this powerful and have the silly ability to turn our hair and eyes different colors."

"I'm sure Bra had to train hard to get to where she's at now.," Marron pointed out in an uncomfortable voice as she fidgeted with both of her index fingers.

"But you're also the most serious of us when it comes to fighting Marron!" Chi pointed out. "Trunks and I see it as a game and Bra doesn't really care either way. Time, I just met today so I don't know about him any. But you, you've always been so hard working and serious about fighting and martial arts and that's what I like about you Marron."

Marron could feel her face flushing further as Chi continued her ranting. "Everyone always goes on and on about what a big deal it is to turn your hair blond on command, personally… Personally, I always thought the transformation makes me look stupid," she glanced uneasily at Marron for a moment before continuing.

"I just don't think I look good as a blond. And… honestly, I always felt a bit guilty about how Trunks and I just 'became' Super by accident, when everyone else had to lose loved ones or train themselves super super hard to get it It just makes me feel…."

"Like you don't deserve that power in the end? Like you're unworthy of the power that everyone else has worked their entire lives to get, right?"

Chi nodded slowly with a guilty look in her eyes as she did her best to hold back the tears that were starting to flood her eyes.

"You're the martial artist Marron, if anyone deserves to win this thing, it's you. I'm just the kid with who lucked out and got the universe's most powerful person for a daddy, you're stronger then me where it really counts, in things like hard work, dedication, and a willingness to go the extra mile that I just don't have."

For a long, very uncomfortable moment, Marron said nothing. It was times like these that Marron wished she took after her father a little more, surely someone as kind and caring as him would know what to say to Chi in order to comfort her.

"I… I'm flattered that you think I'm better then you, really I am. Thank you Chi.," Marron began, before Chi cut her off again.

"Not think." Chi shook her spiky hair from left to right. "I know. You are better than me Marron, maybe not in power, but then again power isn't everything, especially considering I've never worked for my power anywhere near the level that you, or your dad, or my brother, or anyone else we know of has. You have the warrior's spirit, me? I just enjoy roughhousing and sparring but I also enjoy other things too."

For a moment, for a very long moment, Marron said nothing. She said nothing because she had, in truth, thought of herself in similar lines like Chi had just described to her. But now, hearing all of that stuff said out loud? It made Marron feel crummy inside, thinking back to all the times she had felt jealous and envious of the Saiyan hybrids and their naturally impressive power, brief though those thoughts may have been.

Marron knew if she wanted to prove herself and rid herself of this guilt she was currently feeling, that she would have to take Chi down in a fair fight in the next round., The question was, how to convince her?

"I'm truly flattered that you think I'm better Chi, but are you sure you want to give up so easily? After all this will be the only chance your father may ever get to see you fight, are you sure you want to disappoint him?"

"Why should I even care what my dad thinks? I don't even know him any and he's only here for a day so what does it matter what lasting impression I give him? Why should I care what he thinks of my fighting ability?"

"That's true enough I suppose... Alright, what about your mother? She's no doubt been putting you through a lot of training for this tournament right? Are you sure you want to give up your first real match without throwing so much as a punch?"

Chi cringed at the last few weeks' worth of memories of training with her mother. While it may have been nowhere near as bad as what her older brother had gotten at age 4 from Mr. Big Green Bean (Chi's own nickname for Piccolo, not that she would ever have the courage to tell the big scary jerk to his face), it had still been a lot less fun then just regular ol sparing had been. Still, Chi knew full well that Marron was right, if Chi gave up right now without even trying, there was no telling how much her mommy might be emotionally hurt.

"No," Chi admitted, a small blush of her own forming on her face.

"Good, because if you did just go and give up before we even start to trade blows, you know that you'd be hurting her feelings, right? Maybe she'd think that she hadn't trained you good enough to go up against me. That could make her sad and ruin her cheery mood, and on the one day your dad's come back too…"

Even as those last words came out of her mouth Marron felt the weight of guilt descend upon her. She was selfishly manipulating Chi's insecurities just to get a chance to fight her in a tournament just like their fathers had when they were kids. And to relieve her own personal guilt complex. Not for the first time, she wondered why she couldn't have been born an average seven year old.

Chi then looked up and saw her mother, sitting next to her father, one of his muscled arms wrapped around her whole body as she rested her head on his shoulder, looking happier then Chi had ever seen her in all of her 7 years of living. Her giving up could bring that happiness crashing down, and the young Son daughter loved her mother too much to do that.

Chi turned back to Marron. "Alright," she said with a gulp. "I'll give you everything I've got Marron."

Marron grinned and held out a hand. "Then here's to a good match."

Chi gave a small smile of her own as she grasped Marron's hand.

The two child fighters shook and the two friends turned their attention to the battle between the Briefs until Bra was declared the winner.

DBZ

"BEGIN!"

Chi tightened her fists and summoned forth the explosive amount of ki needed to go Super. The familiar tingling of her spiky hair being forced up when it turned from black to blond was one she had never felt comfortable with, though the boost of power and confidence it gave her made up for it.

She bent down in a fighting pose, her now blue-green eyes locked on Marron, who in turn was now smiling. Worse still, it was a small smile at that. Chi might have only been a child, but even she could tell it was something to worry about.

Marron braced herself as her body tensed up and she shouted: "Kaio-Ken times two!" Instantly her whole body was covered in a flame like aura that bore a strong resemblance to the aura that visibly flowed from Chi's own body, the only difference being that Marron's was crimson instead of gold.

There was a moment's interlude, and then Marron delivered a powerful whipping kick to Chi's side, which the young half Saiyan blocked with the side of her arm. Marron lashed out with a few more hasty jab-like kicks before Chi countered with a punch to Marron's stomach that sent the blond reeling back some distance away.

Marron slid back on the soles of her blue shoes, her face nearly emotionless as Chi flew at her and tried to follow up her first punch with an arm thrown back for a second one. Marron, however, swiftly dodged the blow and the next one, and the next one after that, and so on and so on as she continued to weave in and out of Chi's punches and kicks.

Mentally, however, Marron was cringing on the inside, although she was used to fighting people stronger than herself such as her mother, but fighting a Super Sayian was something else entirely. Still, the sheer challenge that stood before her in the form of Chichi Jr. was enough to make her blood flow and eyes gleam with excitement.

_This_, Marron thought to herself as Chi swung her leg out at her in an attempt to deliver a foot to her noseless face, _is going to be FUN._ With beads of sweet running down her forehead, Chi knew she couldn't keep burning up her ki in Super form at this rate. That meant that she would have to think of something else and quickly.

Landing back on the area's ground, she raised both her arms above her head, one hand in front of the other with her small fingers going in opposite directions, as she summoned a golden ball of ki.

"Masenko!" A beam of golden energy shot out of her hands and Marron only had enough time to bring her arms up in a X block as she took that attack's full force at near point-blank range.

The intense ki onslaught lasted for a very long moment before the golden light slowly faded away.

Panting heavily Chi slowly raised her arms up in a defensive stance as the smoke and dust faded away as well.

"T-That... That hurt. Not going to lie, that really hurt.," Marron said as she walked out of the cloud of dust, brushing herself off and cringing in pain as she did. Her face was a mess of scrapes and battered bruises and, had the rest of her not been covered by Bra's specially made training suit, the same would have been said for the rest of her body as well.

"But, if it's all the same to you, I think it's my turn now."

With that, Marron bent her knees down and cupped her hands together, shifting her body back slightly as she did.

"Ka-Me-Ha-Me-H-"

Thunk! Before Marron could finish the Turtle School's signature attack, Chi hastily rushed at her and head butted her in midair, forcing Marron to instinctively put both of her hands up near the fresh slightly bleeding wound. Chi took that moment to then throw back her arm with another fresh punch.

Whack!

Marron flew off of her feet and crashed onto the arena's floor on her back, having been interrupted by Chi's sudden and powerful right hook to her face.

Marron picked herself back up and spat out a wad of blood and spit.

"Alright, if that's how you want to do it then. Kaio-Ken times five!"

With that cry, a fresh blast of crimson aura sudden radiated off of her small body in a flame like manner.

Chi said nothing but summoned forth a fresh blast of golden aura for herself, this time pouring every bit of ki out until her power maxed out.

Chi smirked. "Give it up Marron, even if you were able to multiply your power by another five, it wouldn't be enough to keep up with me."

"You're no doubt right there, so it may be time that I take off some of this weight and lend myself an extra hand or two… I just hope that Bra will forgive me for what I'm about to do."

Chi gave her a puzzled look as she raised an eyebrow. "What are you-"

Her voice was cut off as Marron, through focus and concentration, summoned two extra arms from her back, ripping two holes in her suit as she did so.

"Y-You can grow extra limbs now?"

"It's a move that Master Shinhan taught me. Neat, isn't it? Took me a few weeks before I was able to get it right though..."

Chi could only nod dumbly in agreement, her expression dumbstruck.

Marron beamed a friendly smile at her as she bent herself down in a fighting pose, her two extra hands cracking one another as she did.

"Well then, shall we continue?"

Giving another quick nod both Chi and Marron rushed at one another, vanishing from most of the audience's view in a quick blur of color.

Marron's heart was pounding; pounding so hard, so fast that she felt like it was about to explode right out of her chest. Part of it was the natural excitement she got when deep in battle, but the other part of it was excitement of fighting against a Super Saiyan. She was winning, slowly but surely winning with her speed and agility and her much prided stamina.

With the suit's weight taken off Chi couldn't lay so much as a finger on her, let alone the punches and kicks the daughter of Goku was currently trying to land. Add in all those years sparring with a mother who never tired was starting to pay off quite well for her, after all, if she could outlast them until their hair returned to normal, than that meant that victory was all the easier to achieve.

Even if Marron's body was going to become battered with more bruises than her cyborg of a mother had outfits, and her mother had a lot of outfits, it would be worth it all in the end when she won.

Chi was losing, and she was aware enough to know it too. Her ki was depleting rapidly and even if she did have the advantage in ki output and physical strength, none of that meant a darn if she couldn't hit her opponent. And unfortunately for her, if there was one thing Marron was good at, it was being quick and dodging opponents stronger than herself.

And knowing this, Chi thought of a plan, though even for a six year old girl it was admittedly a very simple one.

Cupping her hands together, she began to chant: "Ka-me-Ha-Me-HA!"

She threw her hands forward as a beam of blue energy erupted from the palms of her hands and she smirked in victory. Even Marron's much prided stamina couldn't take her full powered Kamehameha head on, victory was hers!

Or so Chi thought, that was, until she saw her Kamahama wave collide not with Marron but with the resistance of what felt like two beams of ki. It wasn't quite powerful enough to overwhelm her own attack, but the two beams seemed to have enough power packed in them to offer up a good resistance for the moment.

Then, she heard Marron yell something out that made Chi's blue eyes grow wide in fear.

"Ka- me-Ha-Me-HA!"

Now Chi was having to deal with not only the two other beams of energy, but also a Kamahama. A new burst of gold aura surrounded her body as she gritted her teeth together madly, pouring more and more ki into her own Kamahama wave until small, visible jolts of lighting began to dance madly around her body.

Seconds passed and the two girl's remained in a ki-based standstill, sweat pouring from both girl's' respective bodies as it ran down in rivers off of their battered little faces.

Then, Marron cried out: "Kaio-Ken times 11!"

That, it should go without saying, was the clincher for the match. The boost of power lasted for only a moment, but it was all the time that Marron needed as her two Dodon Rays and her Kamehameha blew through Chi's own attack, temporarily overwhelming and washing over the young half Saiyan's whole body as it engulfed her in a beam of yellow and blue light.

The three attacks died down a moment later and when the blinding light had faded away, there stood a badly bruised ChiChi Jr, whose expression was dazed and her orange outfit now nothing more then ruined tatters that still managed to somehow clothe her underage decency.

"Y-You win, Marron.," Chi said as her eyes began to flutter closed, barely having the strength to keep them open. "I'm done."

Marron nodded, her face filled with pride as she looked to her friend as a smile graced her lips. "Thank you for an excellent match Chi. After my match with Bra is over with, do you want to grab a bite to eat?"

Chi gave her a sly grin. "Is the sky blue or is Mr. Satan a blowhard?"

Marron couldn't help but chuckle just a little at her friend's comment as the Announcer declared her the winner and the two walked off for the final round where Bra and the somewhat winded but still energetic Marron would face off against one another.

* * *

And thus the second match of the junior tournament has come to an end, since we didn't have any comments/reviews from the last chapter (or the chapter before that), this will be a fairly short author commentary, though thanks to Pootis for both faving the story and adding me to their list. Thanks dude.


	6. Chapter 5: Bra vs Marron

Chapter 5: Bra vs Marron

Time: A number of minutes before the final round of the Junior Tournament.

"Bra Bulla Briefs, your father and I want to have a word with you young lady."

Bra turned her head back as she kept her arms rested on the cold metal bar of the top balcony railing and saw her father and, more importantly, her mother standing above her. "Father. Mom."

Her mind was already working into overdrive on some way to worm herself out of this situation; even without seeing her mother's pissed off face and hands resting angrily on her hips, the sheer use of Bra's full name was enough to tell the seven year old child genius that she was in grave trouble.

It was a good thing she had already cheered herself up with ice cream (Chi of course had gone back for more, the little glutton).

Her father, ever loving and caring man that he was, simply had his arms crossed and a look of typical indifference on his face.

"About what?" Bra asked as she played up her naturally innocent voice and batted her eyes.

"About your use of energy attacks," Bulma replied. "When your father tells me you have no control over them."

"Oh." Bra blinked. "Is that all?"

Bulma looked at her daughter, face thunderstruck. "IS THAT ALL!?-" Bra winced at her mother's now much louder voice. "You could have hurt someone doing a stunt that stupid!"

Bra simply shrugged in response. "Could have is the key word phrase. And I didn't, so the point of wondering about what could have been is moot I would think. Besides, it won me the match didn't it? And didn't you-" she pointed an accusing index finger at Vegeta, "- once throw dirt in the face of one of that Freeza guy's top henchmen? To say nothing of the fact that you were more than willing to let a bunch of little green men do your fighting for you all those years ago?" "What your father did-"

"ENOUGH!" Bulma froze midway through her sentence as Bra turned her attention to her father. Vegeta gave his daughter a cold stare.

"The girl asked me a question, so I'll answer. Yes, I did do that once. I did a lot of things most people would look back on with regret. And my stupid stunts once got me killed, and at least nearly three times more since then. You've always expressed disdain for your Saiyan heritage and pride for your human side, then maybe you should prove your human side better than your Saiyan side next time instead of resorting to cowardly tactics like that!"

"You know what I think?" Bra was now copying her mother as she placed her own small hands on her next to nonexistent hips. "I think you're just jealous because I won against your beloved warrior prince."

Vegeta snorted. "Arrogant brat. This has nothing to do with Trunks. The reason that your mother and I are even having this conversation with you in the first place is because we see you squandering your potential to become a better person than either one of us."

Bra blinked and stared at him with a gob smacked expression at which Vegeta couldn't help but chuckle. In all seven years that she had known her father, she had never once see him admit to a character flaw like that, let alone out loud to one of his children!

"What? You seem surprised by my answer, or did that 200 IQ score that you always brag on and on about not tell you what I was going to say?"

"I…"

Now her father was smirking that annoying stupid smirk of his that he always did.

"You have my arrogance and my pride, couple that with your mother's brilliance and you could be a truly deadly fighter on par with Trunks, not to mention that tin can and baldy's daughter, if you decided to really discipline yourself. But instead you choose to spend your time fiddling with pointless gadgets and the like-"

"MY GADGETS ARE NOT USELESS!" Even Vegeta was forced to pause at her daughter's outburst. "JUST BECAUSE YOU AREN'T SMART ENOUGH TO APPRECIATE THEM, DOESN'T. MAKE. THEM. STUPID!"

"AND IF YOU'D LET ME FINISH-" Vegeta roared back. "Your interests lie with tinkering with gadgets and gizmos and the like, which is fine, but that doesn't give you the right to force your brother to throw your match just so you can win in the end. And I think I know why you did it too."

"Really now?" Bra said as she rolled her eyes. "Do enlighten me father."

Ignoring his daughter's sarcasm Vegeta said: "It's because you wanted to impress your dear old father, didn't you?"

For a long moment, Bra only kept her intense gaze locked onto her father's smug face, hands pressing so deep into her sides that she was starting to feel the pressure on her ribs. "Shut up." Tears were starting to swell up in her eyes even as the words limply left her mouth.

Vegeta nodded. "I thought as much. My advice is to keep fighting, but fight in a style worthy of someone with an IQ of 200."

The prince then turned back to Bulma, who had remained silent for a long while. "Punish her as you see fit, I have fights to prepare for."

"Sure, I guess." There was a moment of silence between human mother and half saiyan daughter.

"He cares, you know," Bulma said at last.

"No he doesn't. Even Marron's mom is more affectionate then he is. SHE at least gives the occasional hug or head pat. He doesn't even do that."

"Your father isn't the easiest person to get to know, Bra, but deep down he DOES care. Even if he doesn't show it very often."

"Or ever. Can't even remember the last time I was hugged by him..."

Even Bulma was forced to wince slightly at that statement. Why did her daughter have to be so damn sharp and self-aware for her age? "Look, regardless of all this, you're still grounded understood?"

"Whatever," Bra said with a sigh. She could deal with a grounding for a few weeks anyways, think up new stuff to invent, maybe work on making a time machine or spaceship like her grandfather and that one alternate timeline version of her mother had done at some point.

"Think of this as a way to show your father up as a member of the Briefs family, and a human. And yes, a Saiyan Princess too. But you'll never prove yourself better then your dear old man's dead people if you stoop to tactics like the ones you used against your brother, do you understand?"

Bra nodded slowly and uncomfortably. "I do."

"Good, and just so you're aware Bra, you've also lost all science and experimenting privileges for the duration of the grounding."

"That's fair I suppose-"

"It's a month and a half."

"OH COME ON!"

DBZ

Although Bra was smiling at Marron, the two of them on the arena and the Announcer moments away from starting the final round of the junior championship, inwardly she was scowling. Why did Chi have to go and lose like that anyways? Not that she had anything against Marron of course; she liked the blond girl plenty, even if she was just a touch too serious at times.

_The better question is_, Bra thought. _Why didn't I take Marron into account in the first place?_ She did the mental equivalent of a shrug. _I must have just not thought of it, what with all the training with dad that I've done and worrying about having to possibly fight everyone else in this dumb tournament._

_Either way I guess I'm stuck with the hand fate's dealt me, and I doubt Marron does enough math problems to make giving up the match worth her while._

_Not that I cared about the stupid title, I just wanted to keep going to spite dad, and to add in some extra salt to the wounds, I won't even transform. I'll fight only as a human, THAT will show him! Legendary transformation, my foot! I-_

_Bra?_

_M-Marron? Y-You can read minds?_

_Picked it up from Mr. Tien. Look, as fun as listening to you mentally monologue about your daddy issues is, do you think we could start? The announcer's already given us permission to start and you're kinda just standing there._

Saying nothing and feeling the color of roses fully flush her cheeks, Bra ran at Marron and tried to swipe the blond off of her feet with a low kick to the legs.

Marron dodged the incoming strike by jumping in the air, which was what Bra had been waiting for as she summoned two balls of ki and blasted them at Marron at point blank range while the blond girl was still in mid air.

The attack sent Marron reeling back in the air a foot or two before she landed on the gray, clay floor on the soles of her feet.

She was up a second later. "Not bad Bra," Marron said as she cracked her knuckles together and took a step forward. "You've done a lot of training, I can tell. Your blasts don't normally pack that much power."

Bra could feel her face turn an even darker color of scarlet at the compliment. "Thanks..." she mumbled.

"Of course," Marron continued, "compared to what mother can dish out to me when we spar, that barely tickled. You're going to have to bring your A game if you want to beat me Bra, otherwise you may as well just give up now and go back to your Tinker Tots and your Blockos and your books and save yourself the embarrassment."

A small little twitch began to form under Bra's left eye. She knew what Marron was trying to do. Marron had no doubt spent a good bit of energy fighting Chi and now she was trying to get her angry so she'd lose focus and become sloppy, waste energy, and eventually give her the edge.

_Well it's not going to work Marron,_ Bra thought to herself, mind reading powers be darned, with that she summoned a white aura around her body and began powering up.

She was tempted to go Super, VERY tempted, but her vast amount of maturity and will power held strong. If her father wanted her to prove what her human side could do in battle, then Bra would show him just that.

Marron's only response was to summon forth another Kaio Ken. For a long moment, neither girl moved. Then, with a sudden burst of speed, Marron vanished from view, only to reappear in front of Bra at point blank range and deliver a two hit combo of a punch to the stomach, followed by a clean right hook across the face. The two-pronged attack cased Bra to slide back on the sloes of her shoes slightly as she let out a grunt in response.

"You've always been the fast one, but I wonder if I can't beat ya in some good old fashioned fisticuffs?"

"Only one way to find out," Marron said with a smile. Then, both she and Bra vanished from view of the regular audience at least, all of whom could only continue looking on in the same shock that they had had plastered on their respective faces for the past 45 minutes.

While none of them could see the two girls trading powerful punches against one another, everyone could hear the aftereffect and the mild sonic booms that were following their clashes as the girls flew around at speeds the normal human eye simply couldn't keep track of. Unless, of course, they were trained in the art of controlling ki.

But this nigh impossible to view battle of blows ended as quickly as it had begun as both Marron and Bra returned to view a few moments later.

Both were badly battered with bruises and scrapes, though Marron more so than Bra having already fought off Chi from earlier before.

Still, Bra knew she was no Chi, let alone her brother, and with Marron's access to the Kaio-Ken there was a very good chance she could lose the match if she didn't keep her guard up. So, she would have to play her cards right and just try not to childishly give in to Marron's taunts and insults.

"Seems like your ki isn't the only thing that's improved, Bra."

Bra now gave her friend an annoyed glare. "Look, are you going to just keep complimenting me or are we going to fight?"

"I'm just trying to be nice is all…" Marron said in a hurt tone that made Bra cringe a bit at her previous statement. "And is everything okay with you and your family?"

"What, you read my mind for something like that?"

Marron shook her head from side to side. "You don't need mind reading to tell that your mind's elsewhere."

"It's my dad, nuff said."

"Ah." With Bra, the simple one word explanation of her father was generally enough of an answer. "Transform?"

Bra glared at Marron. "I'm not, and before you say it, it has nothing to do with you being just human or thinking less of you as a warrior or anything like that."

Marron closed her mouth, an O noise dying on her lips. Then she said: "In that case, if you're not going to transform, then I will."

"Transform?" Bra blinked with a confused expression. "What do you mean by transform?"

Marron smirked, an act that Bra couldn't help but look on with uneasiness. "You'll see, through you may want to brace yourself… I'm about to become a bit… wild for lack of a better word."

Bra nodded with slight hesitation, crossed her arms in an X shaped blocking position, and braced herself as Marron's body began to shake and tremble as she summoned a Kaio-Ken times five. Then she dropped to her knees, her hands breaking her fall.

For a moment she continued to quake with power as her ki continued to rise, eventually increasing the Kaio-Ken all the way to a times seven. It was midway through this increase of power that Bra began to hear very distinct growls and snarls coming from Marron's mouth.

"Mar? You alri-" But the sudden snapping up of Marron's head and a good look at the bestial expression that was now locked on her face, cut the daughter of Bulma and Vegeta off.

"Wolf Fang Mode activated." With that, Marron let out a cry that was very similar to that of a wolf's and began changing at Bra on all four limbs, tongue flapping madly in the wind. As she was braced for a punch or a kick, the sudden paw-like swipe from Marron's right hand came as more than a bit of a surprise to Bra.

But, to the credit of her father's training, Bra stood her ground and withstood the next swift slash of fingers, and the next, and the next, all coming in with a blur of movement that only ended when she transformed into a Super Saiyan, causing the now bestial Marron to pause for a brief moment.

But only a moment as the blond shortly returned to her savage swiping onslaught. Now, even as a Super Saiyan, Bra found she was STILL having trouble keeping track of when and where Marron was going to strike next.

Just as she was getting used to the pain and rhythm of the swipes and slashes, however, Marron slipped in a powerful punch that bypassed Bra's block and sent the purple haired girl skidding back once more about a foot and a half away.

Staggering a bit, Bra tried to bring her body back into balance, but Marron gave her no such opportunity as she at rushed her with flailing kicks and savage punches that hit with such speed and ferocity that the poor scientist in training simply couldn't keep up as she was soon overwhelmed by the stinging, pounding barrage of blows.

Eventually, however, the onslaught attack began to slow down, each passing punch becoming slower and weaker then the last until Bra finally was able to catch both of Marron's fists with her own hands.

Both girls were panting heavily, their breaths labored from the strain that the battle was taking on the both of them. Seconds passed as Bra held Marron's fists off with trembling arms as she blinked back the sweat and blood from her forehead injuries.

Then, finally, the red aura that surrounded the young martial artist's body faded away, as did her wolf like expression. A second later Bra's hair returned to its normal shade of lavender.

Marron cringed when she saw her friend's face. "Sorry about your face."

Bra did her best to put on a brave face and shrug it off. "Eh, don't worry about it. We got sciency magical beans that should be able to heal us up pretty good after we're done anyways," Bra said with a sniff and smile.

Marron gave a small smile of her own, partly because she was winning but mostly because she was just glad to see her friend smiling once again.

"Still," Bra continued. "What was up with all that growling and howling and stuff?"

"It was something I made myself. It's a combination of Master Yamcha's Wolf Fang Fist, Mr. Goku's Mad Dog Fist, and the Kaio-Ken. I increase my power and enter a very animal like state of mind, overwhelming my opponents through the sheer unpredictable barbaric force of my blows. It does still need some serious work though, not to mention the fact that makes me use up a lot of energy when I use it."

"Well I think it's neat. Though I think we'll have to end this match pretty shortly, I'm out of juice, you?"

"I got a little bit left, won't say how much though." Marron replied with a wink.

Bra simply stuck her tongue out in response. Both she and Marron may have been very intelligent and mature seven year olds, but that didn't change the fact that they were still just that: seven years old.

With that, Marron finally broke free of Bra's grip and leaped back some few feet away where she landed on her feet in a cat-like manner.

This time Marron came running at Bra with just her legs, not bothering to waste the energy to fly, and threw back her right arm with her hand balled up in a fist. Bra blocked the first punch, but failed to block the knee jab to the stomach that forced her to bend over.

However, having both her mother and father's stubbornness on her side Bra quickly stood back up and delivered a powerful jab to Marron's face, which sent her head back reeling as a result.

"You know if I had a nose, you probably would have broken it with that punch."

Bra shrugged and threw back her arm for another punch to Marron's face. "Probably."

With that, the two went into another series of furious punches and kicks, the difference being that this time the entire audience could keep track of them. Then, a few minutes later when her body felt like it was slowly turning to lead even with her suit being on the lightest setting, Marron jutted a finger out and a yellow ball of energy appeared in her surrounding her index finger.

"Dodon Ray!" The ball of ki turned into a beam of ki too fast for Bra to react as the princess of all saiyans was sent flying out of the ring where she smacked the back of the concrete wall with her skull. Her head swimming, Bra struggled to lift her head up and reopen her eyes.

Suddenly she felt a familiar hand hoist her back on her feet. Finally reopening her eyes Bra saw a very badly battered and weary looking Marron standing next to her, a confident smile on her face.

"Good match."

Bra started to nod in agreement, but stopped half way as a sharp pain raced down her neck.

"R-Right.," Bra said stiffly through clenched teeth. "And congrats on winning, 'Junior Champ.'"

"I haven't won yet, I still have to fight Mr. Satan."

"Please, that blowhard, he doesn't stand a chance. Besides, just look at him, he's scared of ya."

Marron looked up and saw a clearly terrified looking Hercule Satan standing some distance away.

"Either way, I'm going to get myself some sweet sciency magical beans. Best of luck with the 'World Champ'!"

With that, Bra walked off the arena, giggling to herself madly as she did, leaving Marron with just one final match a head ahead of her, the World Martial Arts Champion Hercule Satan himself.


	7. Chapter 6: Champ vs Challenger

Chapter 6:Champ vs Challenger

Hercule Satan approached the ring with an expression of sheer horror.

_Why me?_ He thought. _I mean it was bad enough that not one, not two, but FOUR of kids had shown up with the same powers as those weirdos from the Cell Games. And now here I am with a girl before me that's beaten at least two of them. Two! What chance does someone like little ole me have against a brat with powers like that?_

"H-Hey kid-"

"My name is Marron, Mister Satan."

"Right, right, Maron then. You know this is just an exhibition match, right? A-"

"I know what an exhibition match means sir, though if you're worried about my 'powers', don't be. I've used up just about every drop of ki beating Chi and Bra."

Hercule Satan blinked, his large jaw unhinged as it dropped. "W-Well good!" he said as he put his knuckles on the side of his body, resting them on his white martial arts belt. "Because now without your dumb little tricks to get in the way Mister Satan can show you how a real fighter does it."

Marron rolled her eyes in a very 18-ese manner. "They're not tricks," Marron said with a pouting frown and annoyed glare.

"The Kamehameha is a legitimate martial arts move that my master Roshi took 50 years to perfect, thank you very much. Same for the technique of self-flight that were powers that from the School of the Crane style. So respectfully Mister World Champ, they are no more tricks than your ability to chop through 14 out of 15 stacked titles is."

She then stuck out her tongue in an impulsive bit of childishness.

Hercule had no reply to that but instead narrowed his eyes in a look of seriousness. Powers or no powers he wasn't about to let some kid mock him like that.

"How about I show you how a real martial artist does it then! No fancy laser beams or flying power, just some good old fisticuffs!"

With that the World Champ launched into a furious series of kicks and punches, none of which landed on Marron as he was out of range, and no doubt showing off to the audience.

When he had finished his quick demonstration Hercule looked back down on Marron and smirked, a large bead of sweat dripping down the side of his head as he did.

Marron shrugged. "Not bad I guess, but your form is full of holes sir. Too much excessive movement and unnecessary flair to be used in a real fight. But I don't mind, seeing as how you were clearly showing off for the crowd and all that. Now-"

Marron bent her body down into an offensive fighting stance. "I would like to begin if that's alright with you Mister Satan. And please don't try to back out, I won my right to face you in a match and I WILL have it."

Hercule gulped at the young girl's cold, serious tone and face_. Sweat merciful Kami, she serious!_ His face contorted into a look of sheer terror. "A-Alright then kid, take this: Satan Punch!"

Marron grunted as the blow connected with her face and she slid back slightly on her shoes' soles. Not giving her any time to recover, Hercule quickly followed up his punch with a long kick. "Dynamite Kick!"

That blow to her stomach forced Marron back just slightly and forced her to double over at the stomach. Hercule Satan may have been a liar and a blowhard, but that didn't change the fact that his blows were still roughly on par with Master Roshi's, albeit in a much younger body.

And without her ki to be able to negate the physical effect and damage of those blows, she was forced by simply physics to feel some sort of pain and recoil from it, however unwillingly.

Granted, those blows were nothing more than a sharp stinging pain on par with a bee sting, but given the fact that Marron was running on fumes stamina wise, there was a very good chance she could lose to this man if she didn't keep her guard up.

However, determined not to go down without a fight, Marron stood back up with just enough time to block every single one of Hercule's incoming rapid-fire punches and kicks. Marron blocked them as slowly as she could, partly because it was all she could do, and partly because she wanted the people up in the crowds around her to see what she was doing.

After about half a minute of nothing but defensive blocking, Marron found the opening that she was looking for (Hercule, to his credit, was fighting with a much tighter form then the one he had just shown the audience) and gave the World Champ a jab in the stomach.

Hercule toppled over as he bent to his stomach, clutching it in pain as he did.

Marron blinked a little in surprise as she kept her guard up. "I didn't hit you that hard sir, you were able to live through Cell smacking you face first into a mountain, you can't be in THAT much pain."

"E-Easy for you to say kid." Hercule wheezed as he stood with his back up straight. "You got the endurance of a freaking robot."

"Given that my mother's a cyborg and one of the most kindest people that she knew, aside from my father, was a robot, I'll take that as a compliment."

Hercule could only stare at her. "Huh?"

"Regardless," Marron continued as she cracked her neck back and forth before settling down in a fighting stance. "It may be about time we end this match, and seeing as how Mr. Goku is watching, I have just the technique in mind."

With that Marron rushed at Hercule and as she did so, shouted: "Jan Ken Fist!"

The next thing that he knew, Hercule was hit with another quick punch to the chest as the small blond fighter cried out: "Rock!" which sent him flying back a few feet closer toward the ring out.

Still dazed by the sudden blow, he was unable to brace himself when Marron shouted: "Paper!" and was hit with an open palmed strike to the face that sent him tethering over the edge of the ring.

Hercule flung his arms around wildly windmill style in an attempt to regain his balance, but Marron simply walked up to him, took a deep breath, and blew.

THUD! With that, the Announcer declared Marron the winner of her match with Hercule and added that the Adult Division would be starting in about an hour. Smiling at her victory the pint sized fighter wearily walked off of the arena, hoping that Bra and the other Saiyans hadn't already eaten the tournament out of all of its food and drink.

DBZ

Much to her immense relief, Marron found that there was, in fact, enough food left for her. Granted, Bra and Trunks's mother had to go out and order the food from off island as the adults were currently hogging all of the good tournament food for themselves. But still, food was food and when you were next to drained on ki and had just beaten two Super Saiyans, every little morsel helped.

"Geeze Marron," Trunks said midway through his 20th bowl of rice. "Didn't think it was possible for someone who's just human to eat as much as the rest of us."

Marron glanced up from her food and gave him an irritated leer from being interrupted from her eating. "My normal appetite's worth that of 10 little girls what with all of the training I do, and when you add in the fact that I just beat two Super Saiyans and the World Champ, I think I've earned myself a good long meal," Marron said in between bites as she finished off her 25th bowl of rice.

"Sides," she added as she stifled back a burp. "I'll just burn all of the calories off with my training anyways."

"What I'm surprised by is the fact that you need to eat at all." Time remarked with a grin. "After all, I would have thought that toasters just needed to plug themselves in so that they could recharge."

"I bet I could eat more then you could." Marron said with a twitch under her right eye.

"Um, Marron? You've already eaten more bowls then he has.," Chi pointed out.

Marron said nothing and seemed to ignore the Son daughter as she kept her intense gaze on Time.

"Alright short stuff," Time said, still grinning. "You're on!"

Chi sighed and jumped down from her seat to the floor. "If anyone needs me, I'm going to get some ice cream from one of the stalls."

"I'll join ya," Bra said as she did the same and followed after Chi.

Meanwhile, in a corner that was secluded enough for him to relax his mind and energy, Piccolo sat, his long green legs crossed as he meditated.

"Excuse me, but you are the one that goes by the name of Ma Junior correct?"

Piccolo opened a lone eye and saw a tall, brown skinned man standing next to him. Piccolo said nothing, figuring that the man before him wasn't worth the trouble.

The man, who had many physical traits similar to that of the fighter Killa (save for the lack of a mustache and a shining bald head that would have made Roshi proud), continued to talk.

"My name is 15, I will be your opponent in the first round. I hope our match is a good one."

To finish 15 then gave Piccolo a polite, but stiff, one armed bow.

Piccolo simply said nothing again in reply. What little, pathetic energy he could detect off of this 15 was the pathetic but typical level for a human fighter ignorant of what real martial arts and fighting was.

"… Don't count on it.," Piccolo grunted in a low voice.

A small smile appeared on 15's thick lips. "Heh. We'll see when we fight, won't we Ma Junior?"

With that, 15 walked off leaving Piccolo alone to his meditation once more.

DBZ

"I- BUURRAAPPP- d-did it.," Marron said in a weak voice. Sure enough, she now had a total of 37 bowls of rice stacked in front of her and a bulging belly to hold all that food in, while Time had a mere 25.

Time did his best to hold back his laughter. "Looks like you showed me, eh short stuff?"

"S-Shupah. I-" But Marron was unable to finish her sentence as she passed out into slumber right then and there, the fullness of her stomach and her body's exhaustion having finally overcome her much prided stamina and endurance.

Trunks looked at Time. "Why do you mess with her as much as you do?"

"Come on, like YOU'VE never messed with your little sister just because you can?"

"Well yea," Trunks replied. "So is that what Marron is to you then, an unofficial little sister?"

Time nodded. "That, and I just like messing with someone who tries to be so serious all the time. It's fun."

"Speaking of fun," Trunks said, "I got a plan that could get us to compete with the adults."

"Pass."

Trunks glared at the blond boy in annoyance. "You didn't even let me tell you what my plan was."

"Don't care. Whatever it is, I'll pass."

"OH COME ON!" Trunks stomped the ground with his right leg, causing the nearby ground and Marron's bloated belly to quake as a result (though Marron herself remained deep in her cocoon of dreams). For a moment, neither Time nor Trunks said a word.

"Can you at least tell me why?" Trunks asked.

"To spite you for cheating and breaking your own imposed rules." Time said as he shrugged. "Would have won our match too, if you hadn't gone Super like you did."

* * *

AN: And we have now reached the end of the Junior Tournament, with Marron winning her match against Hercule, though with less ease than Trunks did in canon. Hopefully everyone's enjoyed the fights because next time we're moving up to the adult division. Would once again like to thank Super Vegetarott for taking the time to review my story, even if he did find it horribly contrived (fair enough and to each their own), and I would like to thank SpanishSaiyan for adding this story to his/her follows list, thanks! Also, just felt like sharing that this story's topped over 1000 views! Wish I had a little more feedback commentary from people on what they think of the story, but beggars can't be choosers. Until next week.


	8. Chapter 7: Gohan vs Goku

Chapter 7: Father vs Son

Later, when all the numbers had been drawn and all of the members of Earth's Special Forces that would be competing in the tournament were standing in a group, Goku looked to his son, his typical cheerful smile spread across his face.

"Looks like you and I will be fighting in the first round, eh 'Saiyaman'?" Goku said as he gave his son a playful light jab in the chest with his elbow.

Gohan nodded as he rubbed his elbow with a slight wince. "Looks like it dad, you must have become something else what with all the training you've done in the afterlife."

"Sure have," Goku said with a nod. "Though you must have REALLY become something these last few years yourself right Gohan?"

"HehHeh." Gohan rubbed the back of his head as he gave his father an awkward smile. "About that, dad I-"

"Please Kakarot, what your son is trying to say is that he's allowed himself to become soft and weak these past few years. Of course, I could easily be mistaken. After all, that school of yours DOES have a gym."

Both Goku and Gohan gave Vegeta a shared look of annoyance, which the Prince of all Saiyans brushed off as he walked off with typical Vegeta indifference.

Looking back to his son, Goku could see that Gohan was clearly hurt by Vegeta's words.

"Hey, don't let Vegeta get to you like that son." Goku rested his hand on his son's shoulder. "I'm sure you must have done some training right?"

Gohan didn't look him in the eye as he spoke. "Not really. Mostly just studied and help mom out around the house. I did train a lot at first but the years just went by and well…." Gohan couldn't help but turn his face away from his father, a look of shame written across his 17 year old face clear as day.

"Hey,." Gohan felt the solid hand of his father land and rest itself on his green clad shoulder. "I understand Gohan. Really, I do." Goku paused as his face lit up in his typical sunny smile. "You always did have a stronger affinity for learning and reading than you did fighting anyways, even with all of your massive potential."

Gohan was now looking at his father with a half worried, half curious expression. "So you're not upset, or disappointed then?"

"Gohan, if being a scholar and going to high school and living a life like anyone else on the planet is what makes you happy, then the least I can do is support that decision. And just so you know, I'll always be proud of you no matter what you do with your life."

"I..." As much as he tried to help it, Gohan couldn't stop just a few tears from running down his face. "Thank you, father. That means a lot to me, it really does."

Goku could only shrug in response. "I was never the best of dads when I was alive, so it's the least I can do. All I ask is that you do at least try do a little bit of training, if anything like Cell or Freeza attacks the Earth, it'll be up to you and Vegeta mostly to save the day."

Gohan chuckled and then gave his father a cheerful grin. "Fair enough Dad. Though, you do know that I'm probably not going to give you as good a match as you might want, right?"

Goku gave him another one of his infectiously optimistic grins. "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you, it'll just be like our spars while we were training to fight against Cell. Sound good?"

Gohan nodded. "It does, actually."

DBZ

"Come on Chi," Trunks said in a whining tone of voice. "Don't you want the chance to compete against your father?"

Chi shook her head. "Not really, no. Besides, I've used up most of my energy fighting Marron anyways." Chi had never been a fan of the taste of Senzu beans and had thus declined to take one when it had been offered to her. "So if you'll excuse me, I'm going back for some more ice cream. See ya Trunks."

Trunks let out a sigh as he saw Chi walk off. First Time had refused his idea, now Chi. He'd ask Marron, but the "Junior Champion" was currently suffering from a very nasty stomach ache and belly bloat and hardly looked to be in fighting condition. So she was out.

And if he couldn't convince any of the other kids, there was no way in hell he'd be able to convince his sister, given the bad mood she seemed to be in (Dad was no doubt involved somehow, when Bra was in a bad mood, dad was always the reason why, at least that's how it seemed to Trunks).

"So much for my chance at competing with the grown ups I guess…" He kicked a nearby empty soda can and shoved his hands roughly into his uniform's pockets. Trunks sighed, at least there was always his dad's fighting to look forward to, if nothing else.

DBZ

"FOLKS, IT LOOKS LIKE WE ARE IN FOR A SPECIAL TREAT, FOR THE FIRST ROUND OF THE TOURNAMENT, LONG TIMER COMPETITOR AND WINNER OF THE 23'rd WORLD TOURNAMENT SON GOKU IS FACING OFF AGAINST NEWCOMER, THE GREAT SAIYAMAN!"

"Hey Gohan?"

"Yea dad?" Gohan asked as he bent down in a fighting pose.

Goku smiled. "Best of luck son."

"Thanks," Gohan said, returning his father's smile with a grin of his own.

With that, both father and son bent down into fighting poses and waited for the Announcer to allow their match to start.

"BEGIN!"

Goku was the first to go on the attack as he flew at his son, an arm raised back in a punch, which he threw at Gohan's face when he quickly came within reach. Gohan blocked the punch with one hand and countered hastily with a strong blow to his father's stomach with his knee. The resulting blow sent the halo crowned Saiyan flying high into the air, the wind having been knocked out of his lungs in the process.

Gohan shot up in the air after him, a flame of white aura appearing around him as he increased his flying speed. In a matter of nanoseconds Gohan had flown past his father and, lifting his arms above his head and grasping his hands together, waited. A second later he saw his father's orange clad body come rocketing towards him, waiting only a half a second longer Gohan a delivered smashing doubled handed blow to Goku's back.

The resulting whack! sound of hands connecting with spine reverberated in the air for a few moments as Son Goku's seemingly unconscious body crashed back down to earth, and more importantly, the arena.

Gohan frowned as he lowered himself back down to the ground, crossing his arms together when he reached the ground moments later. "Get up dad, we both know that you aren't going to be taken out by moves like that."

"I know.," Goku said as he pushed his body face first off of the ground and hopped back to his feet, brushing his orange gi off in the process as he did so. "I just wanted to see for myself what level your skills were at, not bad, considering you've had, what, a few weeks of intense training at the most to re-sharpen your abilities?"

"Something like that dad…" Gohan said, his face flushing a slight shade of pink for whatever reason even he didn't know. "Want to get serious though?"

"I'm ready when you are son," Goku said as he began winding an arm around like a windmill in an effort to stretch it out.

Gohan nodded and crouched down in the fighting stance of the Demon style that Piccolo had taught him over ten years ago. Goku went with his tried and true Turtle style stance and there was a brief moment of tension between father and son. But the moment of tension passed as the two both leapt forward at one another and began trading off furious punches with machine gun-like speed.

This went on as the seconds passed and it was when Gohan finally managed to slip past his father's defenses that he was able to land another blow on him, this one a right hook that sent the dead Saiyan sailing back a few more feet towards the arena's edge.

"Not bad," Goku said to his son, his typical 'battle' grin spread across his face. "But now it's my turn. Kaio-Ken times two!" With that a sudden burst of red aura surrounded Goku's body as his power doubled in strength.

"Oh come on dad, that's cheating!"

Goku could only give his son an impish smile. "Hey, you said no going Super, you didn't say anything about moves like the Kaio-Ken."

"I-Well…Alright, if that's how you want do it then dad, Masenko!"

The sudden gold beam of ki that shot forth from Gohan's hands had come quick and spontaneously. It was only with the help of the training he had received in the afterlife, coupled with the boost of the Kaio-Ken, that Goku had dodged the attack at all, bending upwards so as to avoid the audience as it shot off harmlessly into the clear blue sky. In the split second, that his son was busy maintaining the attack Goku appeared beside his son and delivered a powerful kick right across Gohan's face.

Unable to block the blow in the slightest the Great Sayiaman was sent hurtling into the wall, where he crashed to the ground, dazed, moments later. The Announcer declared Goku the winner, and the long absent father went over to help his son.

"You did pretty good for yourself Gohan, considering the restrictions we had on us. Once the tournament is over would you be up for a real spar?"

Gohan could only moan, his eyes now circling spirals. "Let me get back to you on that dad- As soon as those birds and stars circling my head go away that is."

* * *

And so we have the first of the adult matches, with Goku being the winner (see Gohan, this is what happens when you slack off!). Also, this week it seems we have another reviewer with us, a person by the name of NatNicole. I'm glad you're liking Chi's character, is there anything in particular that you thinks unique about her when compared to some of the other "Goku and Chi Chi have a daughter" characters out there, or do you just like her in general? And sadly this chapter will have answered your question on the whole Mighty Mask deal, which is to say that no, I'm not doing it for this fic. Also, in the off chance anyone was confused, Gohan didn't forget his disguise like he did in canon, and thus none of his friends will be making the connection between him and any of his superpowers until the more heavier and serious squeal.


End file.
